The El Modena High School (Orange, Calif.) baseball clubhouse is getting a facelift courtesy of star alumnus Freddie Freeman.
The star Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman donated $500,000 to the team to put toward a new clubhouse. The $1.1 million project, scheduled to be finished in the summer of 2023, will feature a 1,440 square-foot area that includes a locker room, team meeting area, coach’s office and new batting cages, according to ABC7.
Freeman played two seasons of varsity baseball for El Moderna, according to MaxPreps. He shined as a senior both at the plate and on the mound, hitting .417 with five home runs and 10 stolen bases while pitching to a 6-1 record with a 1.27 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 44 innings. A pitcher/third baseman, Freeman was named the Orange County Register’s 2007 Player of the Year. He was a second-round selection by the Atlanta Braves that summer.
He is among a handful of alumni from El Moderna to play sports professionally. Others include Olympic runner Michael Terry, who competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and football player Jeff Spek, who played in the USFL for two seasons and NFL for one.
El Moderna’s baseball team is on the rise. After three straight years of sub-.500 baseball, the Vanguards went 22-10 last season and reached the Final Four.
They will work to grow off that success this spring and then have the Freeman-funded facility ready to go for the following year.
