Elise Freeland has returned to the Marysville High School softball program as an assistant coach. In the photo above, she conducts a running drill during a summer camp session. In the photo below, she is pictured tagging out a runner at second base during her career as a Lady Monarch.
(Journal-Tribune photos by Tim Miller)
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The late author Thomas Wolfe wrote a 1940 novel entitled “You Can’t Go Home Again.”
Marysville High School graduate Elise Freeland must have missed a majority of those chapters.
Freeland, a 2017 graduate of MHS, was recently hired as a tenth-grade English teacher at her alma mater.
She will also rejoin the Lady Monarch softball program as an assistant coach.
Freeland was a four-year softball letter winner under head coach Jennifer Segner-Maxwell at Marysville.
She said it’s amazing to rejoin the MHS program.
“Coach Segner has been my neighbor since I was eight-years-old,” she said. “She’s been my role model and I love what the Marysville coaches teach in the entire program.”
Freeland earned Ohio Capital Conference and Central District (Division I) honors while playing for the Lady Monarchs.
She was a member of MHS’ district championship and regional runner-up team in 2016 and the 2017 squad that placed second in the district.
Freeland played all over the Marysville infield during her career and finished with a .402 batting average.
She went on to play five years at third base for Wittenberg University, while hitting .420 for her career.
Freeland earned North Coast Athletic Conference first-team honors during the 2019 campaign.
“I played an extra year in college due to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Freeland.
She also was a student-teacher at Springfield Northwestern High School during her final year at Wittenberg.
It was only in the past year that Freeland began thinking about returning to teach and coach at Marysville.
“A teaching position became open and I went for it,” she said. “It was just crazy timing.”
“I’m going to be a varsity assistant here and will coach the infield defense,” she said. “I feel my experience in college will be beneficial to Marysville, which is a top softball program.”
Freeland is not only happy to be reunited with Segner-Maxwell and MHS assistant coach Larry Fox, she’s also excited to join some of her former teachers in the Marysville High School English department.
“I was a student of Denise Castner, Katie Kozak and Jennifer Watts,” she said. “Now, I’m going to get to teach alongside them.”