BELLEVUE, Neb. - The Bellevue University men's soccer team, under the direction of 2014 MCAC Coach of the Year Matt Briggs, has announced the signing of Ian Freeman (Omaha, Neb./Millard West HS) to a letter of intent to continue his academic and athletic careers at Bellevue beginning in the fall of 2015.
The son of Jeff and Jamie Gibson, Freeman was coached by Rob Beerninck at Millard West High School and helped lead them to a state tournament appearance last season.
Freeman played his club soccer for 402 Evolution for Bellevue coach Matt Briggs where he scored five goals and assisted on six others this past season. He helped the team to qualify for the USA Regionals in 2011 and to the Club State semi-finals in 2014.
In remaining with their goal of signing top local talent, Coach Briggs said of Freeman, "We are very happy to have signed a top local player in Ian Freeman to a letter of intent and bring him into the Bruin family to join our already very strong recruiting class."
Briggs went on to add that, "Ian is technically very clean and is a very creative player that has the ability to cause the opposition all kinds of problems with his movement and clever play. Ian is our first signing from Millard West and we hope he will be the first of many players joining us from West Omaha as we look to increase the number of top local players in our program"
Freeman joins earlier signees Travis Hurd (Gretna, Neb./Gretna HS), Josh Bush (Omaha, Neb./Westside HS), Neftali Mejia (Lexington, Neb/Schuyler Central HS), Jonas Starkus (Omaha, Neb./Bellevue West HS), Austin Obermeyer (Gretna, Neb./Gretna HS), Matthew Robbins (Omaha, Neb./Omaha Burke HS), and Jacob Krug (Plattsmouth, Neb./Plattsmouth HS) in the 2015 recruiting class.
Bellevue posted a 15-3-2 record this past season and finished the year ranked No. 11 in the postseason NAIA Coaches' Poll. The Bruins won both the MCAC Regular Season and Tournament championships this past season on their way to their winningest season since 2006 (15-6-0). They defeated Hastings College in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round and advanced to the final site for the first time since 2009 and just the second time in school history.
