SUNY Potsdam Athletics

Brady Fremont was a highly skilled short-stick midfielder for the SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team from 2010-13. He helped the Bears to some very high points during his time at the College and became the program's seventh All-American as a senior.
 
Fremont, like all Bears Hall of Famers, has always been a competitor. The chance to compete is what drew him to sports in the first place when he was young.
 
"I always wanting to get outside and play games and be with my friends and be social," said Fremont. "Not specifically lacrosse, but just having that drive to be competitive. And having a chance to win. I played hockey growing up, and for the majority of my life, that was my number one sport. That was my love. That was my passion."
 
Fremont was a very talented hockey player, but continued to improve and make an impact on the lacrosse field as well. The summer before his senior year he met then Bears assistant coach Ben Gable at a summer tournament. Gable started the recruiting process.
 
"Brady played at perennial high school power West Genesee," said Bears men's lacrosse head coach Rick Berkman, who is now in his 28th season at Potsdam. "He was an under the radar guy because he wasn't a goal scorer, but he was a really accomplished hockey player and I always kind of gravitate towards those kind of athletes. He was a guy that not a lot of schools knew about."
 
Berkman got Fremont to campus for a visit and he committed to Potsdam before his senior season at West Genny. In addition to enjoying his visit to Potsdam, Fremont grew up with a family camp in the Thousand Islands.
 
"I was fairly familiar with the North Country and everything that it had to offer," said Fremont. "Being outside and being able to hunt and fish and do the things that I love doing and not be stuck in the middle of the city."
 
With his college decision made, Fremont prepared for his senior season of hockey and lacrosse. However, his love of hockey almost prevented him from furthering his lacrosse career.
 
"We had a really good hockey team in high school growing up," Fremont said. "And, I chose not to play lacrosse for my varsity team my junior year. For that reason, I was actually cut my senior year after playing for the program my whole life. So I actually had a call Coach Berkman and tell  him."
 
Despite the gap in Fremont's lacrosse playing time, Berkman was still confident in his ability. He told Fremont to keep his skills sharp and stay in shape.
 
Fremont arrived on campus in the fall of 2009 and within weeks he was on the turf for Fall Ball season with the team. He admitted the time away from lacrosse was very clear his freshman year.
 
"I realized that I was almost two years removed from playing field lacrosse," said Fremont. "And I knew I was a little bit of an athlete, but I didn't have the skills that a lot of these guys had that continued to play through their high school careers. So it was it was fairly evident early that I wasn't where I needed to be my freshman year."
 
When the 2010 season finally arrived, Fremont was still working the rust off. The Bears started the season 4-2, but a four-game slide in the middle of the season put their playoff hopes in jeopardy. Fortunately, they closed out the regular season winning three of their last four contests to reach the postseason before bowing to Cortland in the playoffs. Fremont only saw action in four contests that spring, but it motivated him for the future.
 
"My freshman year was eye opening to me," Fremont said. "And it was like, hey, like if I want to continue to do this, I better start putting in some real work. I needed to do something that separated myself from everybody, because everybody works hard, right? So how do you separate yourself? So that's when I kind of had a mind shift of like, hey, like, you can control your own destiny. I can make myself bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic. I can do those things. So let's start there and start developing ourselves. It's not all based on talent. A lot of it is who works the hardest and who's in the gym the most."
 
Fremont wasn't the only player looking to raise his game during the 2011 season. The Bears battled their way through 17 games, including seven one-goal contests. Potsdam opened with an exciting 22-20 victory over Medaille in Myrtle Beach and found itself with a 3-1 record after a 19-1 blowout of Cazenovia. The Bears then sputtered again, losing four in a row, but rebounded as conference play started. Potsdam edged Brockport, Oneonta and Geneseo by one goal each before downing Oswego 11-7 to clinch a 4-2 SUNYAC record and the No. 2 spot in the playoffs. In the semifinals, the Bears held off Geneseo in an 18-17 shootout to reach the SUNYAC Championship game for the first time in program history. In the title matchup, Cortland again overpowered Potsdam to conclude an incredible campaign. Fremont's play was an important part of the success, as the sophomore played in all but one of the games.
 
"That was a stellar season for us," said Fremont. "I remember that was motivating to me and a lot of the other guys on the team, where we realized we're close. We can just work a little harder and see if we can get over the hump here and add a couple pieces our junior year. That was definitely a special season, making it all the way to the SUNYAC Championship. And then also feeling like I'm a part of it because I'm getting playing time and I'm contributing to the success."
 
Fremont and his teammates were expecting to make even greater progress during the 2012 season, but it wasn't meant to be. Key preseason injuries and bad luck eroded the Bears chance for a return to the postseason. Potsdam won five of its first eight games, but faltered at the end of the season and missed the playoffs. Fremont was still able to measure his own progress.
 
"We did have a disappointing season as a team," Fremont said. "We were injury riddled. We had some transfers. We had some things not work out the way we intended. But personally, I think that's when I started to take a little bit of a leadership role on the team. I was a team captain towards the end of the season. We missed the playoffs that year, but it was building towards trying to get back to the playoffs our senior year and make a run again."
 
Fremont played in all 13 games in 2012, caused 12 turnovers and collected 20 ground balls. While providing offense wasn't a critical part of his game, he also scored his first career goal and recorded three assists.
 
Fremont was a proven leader and captain as he headed into the 2013 season as a senior. The Bears were determined to bounce back and reach the playoffs.
 
"As far as me personally, a lot of a lot of it was what do we need to do to get back to where we were our sophomore year," Fremont said. "Let's buckle down and work hard. Let's get better every day. And then for the seniors, let's help that resonate throughout the entire team. Let's remind the guys that were here, what it was like when we were having success. Then pass that message to the to the up-and-comers and the new guys."
 
Potsdam started the spring 4-2, but struggled again in the second half of the season. However, a gutty 11-10 victory over Geneseo on Senior Day and a little help from the rest of the league propelled them back into the postseason. The Bears faced the nation's top-ranked team in Cortland in the SUNYAC Semifinals and weren't able to overcome the powerful Red Dragons.
 
Fremont played in all 14 games, recorded five points on two goals and three assists, 15 caused turnovers and 24 ground balls. By the conclusion of his season, the coaches in the league were well aware of Fremont's ability and voted him first team All-SUNYAC.
 
"Being a short stick, you play a position where you do a lot of things that don't go on the stat sheets," said Fremont. "You do a lot of things that go unnoticed. It's not a real flashy position. So obviously, it felt good to be recognized. Knowing you're one of the blue collar guys."
 
Three weeks later, Fremont was selected as a third team All-American. It was a welcome surprise for the Bears' captain which helped somewhat offset the realization that it was the end of his playing career.
 
"When the season ends you have a lot of emotions," Fremont said. "Not only are you not going to be there with your peers and your teammates, these guys that you went to battle with. It's a realization that probably your competitive athletics career is over. It's a realization that hey, there's nothing after this. So there's a there's a lot of emotions running through your mind and to be honest with you, All-American was so far beyond anything that I had I had ever imagined. I was so focused for the majority of my career on team success that it was really was a surprise. Obviously you feel proud and blessed and you feel like it took a lot of people and a lot of moving parts to help contribute to that. Teammates and coaches and training staff and family members and everything."
 
"Brady was a really dedicated guy," said Berkman. "He was more on the shy quiet side in the beginning. He certainly didn't play a role that gets a lot of credit from the fans. But to the coach, he was my MVP. He could do things as a d-middie that nobody else could do. He was a guy that did it all for us. Cleared the ball, got ground balls. A lot of times he would shut down the other team's top midfielder, rather than our long-stick middie. Brady could handle that and we could put our long-pole guy on their second offensive guy. That gave us a huge advantage. Great leader. Great player."
 
Reflecting on his team experience at Potsdam, there's a lot of moments that Fremont remembers fondly.
 
"First and foremost I think you miss the camaraderie," said Fremont. "You miss the teammates. You miss the locker room. You miss being with your peers and that everybody there is trying to achieve the same goal. I do miss being a leader in that sense and saying 'hey guys follow me, let's try to do it this way.' And then I miss going to the gym at Maxcy. Going on runs inside or playing outside in 30 degrees, snow and freezing cold weather. You think it sucks at the time, but those are those are things that you look back on and you hang your hat on those memories."
 
Fremont credits Berkman for helping him improve and achieve greater success as player and enjoy his lacrosse experience at Potsdam.
 
"He has that competitive spirit, that burning fire and desire to win," Fremont said. "And it's obvious, you can see that that's how he was as a player. And that's exactly how he is as a coach. That resonates through the right type of people and I think a lot of guys feed off that. If I'm a leader on the team and I'm echoing the same message and you're on the same page, you can you can do special things. He helped me realize, especially my freshman year, there's no sugarcoating it. This is not youth sports. This is collegiate and you want to be out there and you want to contribute, but you need to be better. And you need to do things that make you better. What are you going to do to achieve those things? And that's something that's always stuck with me. He helped me realize that you're in control of your own destiny. Whatever you want to put into, this is what you're going to get out of it."
 
After Fremont graduated he headed south to a sunnier climate in Florida. He worked construction when he was in high school and during the summers while in college, mainly pouring a lot of concrete. That experience combined with his Potsdam degree in Economics allowed him to take a construction supervisor job. Fremont now resides in New Smyrna Beach with his girlfriend Kristin, another Potsdam alum. He currently works as a superintendent for  D.R. Horton, overseeing the building process of residential homes. Fremont's current project is building an entire community of several hundred homes.
 
"I have an office on site every day," said Fremont. "I'm managing the entire construction process from payments, to scheduling, to quality control, to code compliance. From the time that there's a piece of dirt until the time the homeowner gets the keys."
 
Fremont appreciates his Potsdam experience and believes it helped get him where he is today. He'd recommend it to anyone.
 
"It's a great place to learn," said Fremont. "It's a very tight-knit campus and town in general. You're going to get everything you're looking for in a college experience. Socially and academically."
 
Fremont says the same thing about being a Potsdam Bear.
 
"We did what we needed to do to try to be successful for four years playing sports," Fremont said. "At the same time, we had fun while we were doing it. We worked hard and played hard. I do feel like I got a well-rounded college experience. People ask me all the time, would you go back and do it again? And from day one, I wouldn't change a thing."