Plymouth State University

STACEY FREDA ('95): One of the top athletes in school history, Freda was a standout on the Plymouth State lacrosse teams but was more widely known as one of the all-stars on the nationally-ranked Panther soccer teams of the 1990s. She was a captain and First Team All-America as a senior and went on to win Plymouth State's Female Athlete of the Year Award in 1995.

A native of Windham, N.H., Freda burst onto the scene in 1991, when she was named Little East Conference Women's Soccer Rookie of the Year. She went on to earn All-New England honors as a junior, and was named Little East Conference Player of the Year and All-America as a senior in 1994. Her 12 goals her senior season and her 18 career assists both rank among the all-time Panther bests. Freda helped the Panthers to four consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament berths and two Final Fours, and a remarkable combined four-year record of 62-7-6.

Freda has been a successful coach and athlete since her graduation from Plymouth State. She earned a Coach of the Year Award as the soccer coach at Dracut (Mass.) High School in 1996, and has been the soccer coach at Weston (Mass.) High since 1999. She coached lacrosse for several years at Billerica (Mass.) High, and has been the lacrosse and ice hockey coach at Framingham (Mass.) High School since 2002, earning Coach of the Year honors three times and leading the lacrosse team to the conference championship in 2004. Freda has won titles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire Women's Golf Association tournaments, and she ran the 2004 Boston Marathon.