The Varsity football team has hired a new head coach to lead it in 2009. The new head football coach is Mark Lyons. He is a teacher in the Mount Pleasant School District. He has coached at Freedom before but was an assistant. He has been the head coach at Mount Pleasant, Monaca, and was an assistant coach at New Brighton last year before being hired by Freedom this January. This is the second new head coach in the last two years and many changes are expected to be made for this coming. Lyons will change to a “run heavy” offense this coming season instead of a balanced offensive attack. His defensive plans remain unknown. Frank Hernandez will be one of the only coaches that will be returning from last year’s staff. Also, Lyons said that there will be no overnight football camp this summer. Instead, the team will have “three-a-days” every day for one week, and the players will return to their homes each night. This change has been met with mixed emotions from the players. Tackle Ben Bates said, “It will be nice to go home to my own bed, but I don’t know if I’ll have the effort to come back in the morning.” Linebacker Adam Teets added, “Going home at night will keep us well rested because no one will mess with you at night.” Hopefully the changes Lyons is instituting with changes to the coaching staff and coaching philosophy will help turn around the Bulldogs’ losing ways.