It’s the bottom of the seventh in the home opener for Evanston Township High School’s varsity baseball team. The opponent: Oak Park and River Forest High School, described by ETHS athletic director Chris Livatino as one of the best teams in the state.

With the score tied at 4-4 and ETHS down to one out remaining in the game, junior Jesse Heuer takes the plate. The second baseman swings and makes contact, launching the ball into right field for a walk-off homer. The play ends the game with a score of 5-4, ETHS.

“It was not about baseball but it was one of those emotional wins,” Livatino said. “I think it meant a lot to the guys to be back at home. We were playing for Coach (Ross) Freeland.”

Freeland, the varsity baseball assistant coach and a math teacher at ETHS, died March 14 after a short battle with stomach cancer. The 41-year-old’s death came a week before the baseball team’s first game of the season.

His coworkers in both the math and athletic departments said they learned of Freeland’s illness in January.  

Several of Freeland’s colleagues emphasized his humility. Math department chair Dale Leibforth said Freeland was often quiet and even shy with his fellow teachers, but with his students, he blossomed.

“Whether it was on the baseball field or in the classroom … he is just great with relating to kids and being real with them,” Leibforth said.

Freeland joined ETHS’ math department in August 2003 after two years of student and substitute teaching at the high school, District 202 superintendent Eric Witherspoon told The Daily in an email. Leibforth said Freeland had since taught several courses in the math department and even designed and implemented a new class called Algebra in Entrepreneurship.

“That’s a class where you take students (for whom) math wasn’t their first love and apply it to that kind of a business setting,” Leibforth said. “It’s kind of a flashy course but he just came in and did his thing. That is kind of how I want to remember Ross, as just a guy who did things the right way.”

In addition to his teaching and coaching responsibilities, Freeland was a husband, father and — as several of his colleagues described — a mentor to countless students. Livatino said he often tutored ETHS students, and he also helped run Camp Highlands for Boys, an overnight camp in Wisconsin.

Sachin Jhunjhunwala, one of Freeland’s close friends and a fellow math teacher at ETHS, said Freeland’s family had received an outpouring of support from the high school and Camp Highlands communities. Jhunjhunwala created a GoFundMe page, the Ross Freeland Fund, so people could contribute donations to Freeland’s family in his memory.

“His house was full of flowers and his porch was filled with coolers full of food,” Jhunjhunwala said. “We decided to set up a fund just to give people an outlet (to contribute).”

Livatino said the athletic department is also making an effort to commemorate Freeland. While some plans are still being developed, Livatino said for now, Frank Consiglio, the baseball team’s head coach, ordered white circular patches that bear Freeland’s initials in orange and blue lettering. The players had affixed the patches to their uniforms for the first game on March 21 and are going to wear them for at least the remainder of the season, he said.

Livatino also said the baseball program was renaming its program impact award, given to the player who has the biggest impact on the team each year, after Freeland.

“A lot of these guys have really, really close relationships with him,” Livatino said. “They’re managing it as well as can be expected but it’s going to be an ongoing process throughout the season. He was really important to so many of them.”

Leibforth said Freeland’s family was also intending to hold a service in his honor at ETHS on April 10.

“Everybody’s thinking and saying, ‘What can we learn from this, how can we move forward?’” Leibforth said. “And most people say, if you could live your life to be a little bit like Ross everyday, the world would be a better place.”

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