Travis Goldsmith Freeman Year: Senior Sport: Basketball Position: Forward

The general agreement last season was that Freeman would need time to adjust to Class A sports after years in the Class B Bi-County League.

The time, apparently, has come.

A year after a disastrous 1-15 NEA boys basketball debut, the Scotties are 7-2 and alone in first place, just ahead of Riverside (7-3) and Medical Lake (6-2).

Freeman defeated second-ranked Medical Lake 82-65 on Friday as Travis Goldsmith scored 23 points.

Goldsmith, a two-year starter, has seen the ups and downs at the Rockford school.

“We’ve just kind of carried it over from summer (league),” Goldsmith said. “We had to get things changed around from last year.”

Goldsmith blames last year’s last-place finish on inexperienced players more than the school’s jump in classification. He said the NEA is one of the state’s toughest leagues, with nearly every team capable of pulling a stunner.

As proof, Kettle Falls (3-6) is the only league team besides Chewelah (5-3) to defeat Freeman.

Goldsmith credited the Freeman bench and fellow starters Andy Hill, Cory Oberst, Justin Miller and Nick Schuerman.

Goldsmith’s older brother, Chad, plays for Community Colleges of Spokane.