Don Freeman goes where baseball needs him.
Spanning Prairie and Heritage high schools, Clark College, USA Baseball and now club teams in Germany, the Battle Ground resident has answered the call.
Now, he’s answered the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association call for a Hall of Fame honor.
Freeman is one of eight inductees selected for the WIAA’s 2017 Hall of Fame, it was announced Friday. He is one of three former head coaches to be recognized in the Class of 2017 next spring when the organization holds its formal ceremony for the 2017 and 2018 Hall of Fame inductees.
Freeman joins the eight-person Hall of Fame class headlined by recently retired Tumwater High School football coach Sid Otton, the state’s all-time winningest football coach. Other inductees are Al Hairston, Cheryl (Byers) Schauble, Duke Washington, Ron Jones, Dele Gunnerson and former longtime Seattle Times prep sports writer Craig Smith.
In addition to baseball, Freeman also coached football and gymnastics, and his baseball accomplishments are loaded with victories, state titles and world championships.
He led Prairie’s baseball program from 1979 to 2004, and won state titles in 1986 and ’89. He coached at Heritage for three seasons (2008-10) and also led the rebirth of Clark College’s baseball program in 2011. He also coached at Hillsboro (Ore.) High School.
Speaking Friday from Berlin, Germany, where Freeman currently coaches the Berlin Flamingos, a German baseball club, the 66-year-old called his latest Hall of Fame induction a “tremendous honor.”
He also is in the Hall of Fame at Prairie High School, the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association, and Washington State Gymnastics Coaches Association. A former head gymnastics coach at Battle Ground and Prairie, he returned to Prairie last winter as an assistant gymnastics coach.
He said some of his greatest memories coaching high school baseball were watching his players succeed, and seeing them achieve their goals. He said it was more rewarding as a coach to watch his players experience success than what he achieved as a three-sport athlete at Renton High School.
“That was a big part of my life,” he said, “and to get the chance to do the same thing and help people experience those same things, it’s more rewarding.”
Three players at Prairie whom Freeman coached — Adam Peterson, Alan Embree and Richie Sexson — made it to the Major Leagues, and Freeman noted that another 30 to 40 players from USA Baseball, he has worked with reached the majors.
With USA Baseball, Freeman coached two under-16 national teams to world titles in 2003 and ’07.
