“I’m just very grateful. I think the entire season was a blessing … I think this award is more of a recognition of our team, our community, and more importantly, just my staff,” Freeman said. “I can’t say enough good things about my staff. They deserve more recognition than I do, because they go above and beyond. They believe in our culture, they believe in our mission, and they believe in our vision. They make sure that our guys are prepared, and that they build those relationships that are long lasting. So overall, I’m just very grateful for the season that we had, because it was a really special team to be a part of.”

The last time the Rebels reached the Class A state semifinals was in 2000, and they made the state tournament for the first time since 2021. MCC finished 9-3 overall in Freeman’s 12th season.

A large part of MCC’s success this season was Freeman and his staff continuing to put emphasis on creating a family culture and playing selflessly. All players had the word “family” stickered on the back of their helmets the entire season, and held hands with one another walking onto the US Bank Stadium field.

“I think it’s one thing to actually believe it [our culture]. How that’s given, I think it’s based on relationships. I feel like our coaching staff does a great job [with how] we build personal relationships with these guys. We care about them more than just about football, and then that spreads,” Freeman said. “Now our guys, when they see a freshman in the hallway, they’re caring about what they’re doing in school and how they’re doing it, and I feel like there was just a connectedness. Anytime you can build a culture, and I think you see that with the other championship teams that are out there. It’s based on the culture and how much they believe and how much they care about each other. Our family is the glue, and that’s what keeps us together.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Murray County Central head football coach Patrick Freeman (front) coaches his team in the Class A state semifinals on Nov. 15 at US Bank Stadium against Breckenridge.

MCC’s season came to an end with a semifinal 28-21 loss to Breckenridge that came down to the final minutes in the fourth quarter. After the Cowboys got a final defensive stop leading to the end of the game, Freeman called a timeout and huddled every player on the field.

“This team was a great representation of that bond all year. Even when it was tough at the beginning [of the season], we stayed together, and you keep believing,” Freeman said. “Ultimately, we were doing that at the very end as we walked up the field, even though we lost.”

Postgame, Freeman said the timeout was an opportunity to bring everyone together once more to emphasize that they leave the field just as they entered the first game in August — as a family. He said he also reminded the team in that moment of what they had accomplished, becoming a top-4 team in Class A.

“We embraced every moment of it [playing at state]. You know, it’s always been a dream, it’s been a vision, it’s been a goal. To be able to get to play US Bank Stadium with this group of guys was a lot of fun,” Freeman said. “More importantly, just seeing the community rally around it. I think that’s the best part about being small school football, too. Being Class A, you’re going to see the entire town rally behind you, and you see that with other sports too, or other teams around the area too. I love that part of that small community supporting, and it was a lot of fun to be part of.”

And, just that happened as the Slayton community and supporters packed the Rebels’ section at US Bank Stadium directly behind their sideline dressed in purple and black with numerous hand-made signs to be seen.

“Even after the season, there’s so many people [who] are reaching out, and again, to see that there is a lot of pride for what happened,” Freeman said. “That’s just a credit to our guys and our team. That’s what I told them at the end, too, that you made a community believe, and it really shows a lot of the good things that we have to offer here in Slayton at Murray County.”

Prior to the thrilling postseason run, MCC had to quickly flip the script from an 0-2 start while dealing with some injury-faced adversity. The Rebels fell to a pair of top-10 ranked teams to begin the season to Springfield and Dawson-Boyd.

“Part of it is quality opponents, too. I think just knowing Dawson Boyd and Springfield, they’re going to be a team that’s ranked all throughout the year. But, more importantly, is how do you respond to failure? I think sometimes you learn more when you fail,” Freeman said of the team’s turnaround. “Towards the end of the season, we played an undefeated Springfield team, Fillmore Central and Breckenridge, but we had to face some adversity … We failed early on, but we were able to learn from those things. Ultimately, I think that helped us in the end.”

“We responded to adversity as a challenge, and we were never comfortable,” Freeman added about managing the injuries. “We know it’s a next-man up mentality, and every person on this team has a role and a job.”

MCC responded with a nine-game win streak, leading to a Section 3A Championship win with revenge over Springfield 31-20, putting an end to the Tigers’ three-year state runner-up streak.

“We really showed our identity in that game. I think there was just a lot of push from our seniors, that we haven’t beat Springfield and they haven’t got to experience that for a long time. I think you could see that relief and also that excitement, and anytime that you can be a section champion, I think that’s great,” Freeman said. “We knew that going into the state quarterfinals, it was going to be another tough match [in a 29-26 win over Fillmore Central], but our guys just always believed. We say ‘Trust the process’ a lot, but I really believe that our guys stayed together and trusted their role, and that’s what got us to get to US Bank Stadium.”

The message was clear from Freeman and senior quarterback Teague Meyer in the preseason that MCC was going to give all that it had to get back to state this year, who both told the Independent they had confidence with this season’s squad full of returners with determination to make a deep run.

“We took each week as our championship week, too. We never underestimated opponents. I thought our guys did a good job of preparing each week,” Freeman said. “We know there’s really good football down here … I think for us to stay in focus week in and week out, we knew that we would have a chance as long as we were prepared, we showed our effort and we stayed true to who we are.”

Freeman continued to note appreciation toward his assistant coaches, for their hours spent on game preparation and building relationships, detailing that he feels “Very blessed to have a great staff that care and go above and beyond.”

The success of this year’s team will serve as a motivational point for next season’s returners and the classes to come. The experience and memories of breaking expectations, upsetting higher-seeded teams and representing Slayton in the state tournament will forever stay with the 2025 players and coaches, and fuel what’s to come.

“When talking about the senior group, they established something that our younger [players] and our youth programs can be excited about, and that’s something that you want to experience again,” Freeman said. “We didn’t get to the championship game, but that should be the next model within — That to get there, you got to be consistent in the offseason … You got to stay hungry. You got to believe in the offseason preparation. No matter who we have coming out next year, we’re going to be ready to go, and it should be a motivation factor. If you can’t be motivated by going to US Bank Stadium, I don’t know what else can.”