By David Harry
Staff Writer

Linda Freeman and her daughter Carolyn are now a unique pair in college sports history.
Carolyn Freeman, a senior elementary education major, surpassed the 1,000-point plateau playing basketball for Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.
That Carolyn Freeman, 21, is the 19th woman to score 1,000 points playing for the Monks is notable. But because her mother was the first to score 1,000 points for the team, the achievement is exceptional.
Saint Joseph’s College Sports Information Director Corey McCarthy said the dual achievement is very rare.
The jump shot Carolyn Freeman made Jan. 3 in the closing seconds of a holiday tournament game against Skidmore College prompted McCarthy to do a little research, he said.
What he found indicates only one other mother and daughter have scored 1,000 points playing for the same college team.
When Courtney Porzio of Pennsylvania-based Cedar Crest College scored her 1,000th point in 2006, McCarthy said she joined her mother Melissa Porzio in that distinction.
Linda Freeman, who graduated from the college in 1981, became the first 1,000-point scorer for Saint Joseph’s in 1980. Before entering the college, she played basketball, field hockey and softball at Scarborough High School.
Now a guidance counselor at Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, Freeman said she played basketball in a far different era than the three daughters she and her husband, Max, have raised in Scarborough.
“When I made the freshman team [at Saint Joseph’s], there was one coach for all the women’s teams,” she said.
Carolyn Freeman says she grew up in a sports-minded house where her older sisters Tricia, 25, and Alex, 24 also played basketball.
“We had a hoop in the driveway, I made them shoot,” Linda Freeman said.
But even as travel teams and a higher level of organization created better opportunities for her daughters to learn and play sports, Freeman said she worked to reinforce what is important in life.
“We were constantly on the road, and I don’t know if that was Carolyn’s favorite part of it,” she said about athletics.
Linda Freeman also is an assistant coach at McAuley, where Carolyn played before graduating in 2006. As a freshman, Carolyn Freeman said she rode the bench while her team won a state championship.
Linda Freeman said what really matters is how her daughter has merged her athletic and academic abilities.
“She is just a neat person,” Linda said.
Carolyn said McAuley was a good fit for her life athletically and socially after attending Scarborough schools through the eighth grade.
“It was the best place for me, you could be yourself,” she said of the Catholic school.
As she began to consider college, Carolyn Freeman said Saint Joseph’s was not on her mind.
“I was thinking of Endicott or the University of Maine in Farmington,” she said.
Linda said she asked her daughter to keep Saint Joseph’s in mind because of its education program. She also knew her daughter could help the basketball team.
Carolyn Freeman has been a fixture in the lineup since her freshman year in college. She said she enjoys playing at this level because it is competitive and the athletes are playing for the love of the game.
Although she described her mother as a more aggressive player, Carolyn Freeman is one of 11 Saint Joseph’s players to accumulate 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career.
She said she is also ready to leave the court and enter the classroom and hopes to teach students in the kindergarten- to second-grade range. Even as the team was gearing up for its current season, Carolyn said she was student teaching at Windham Primary School from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“If you give them enough encouragement, they will do fine. A teacher has to push them to their best potential,” she said of teaching.
Balancing athletics and studies has its demands, she said.
“I write a lot of lists,” Carolyn said about her time management skills.
Like her mother, Carolyn Freeman passed the 1,000-point milestone in a road game. Linda Freeman said the game was stopped to mark the occasion when she made history and she later was honored at a home game.
Carolyn said she was less aware she was closing in on the mark than her friends and family – many of whom turned out to see her reach the mark. They had to wait a bit in the game as one basket was nullified by the buzzer and she missed a free throw.
Carolyn said she was just as pleased when Saint Joseph’s later upset nationally ranked Emmanuel College on Jan. 7. She had six points and six assists in the 60-47 win.
“It wasn’t one of my goals to score 1,000 points,” she said.
As for being perhaps one of two mother-daughter teams to score 1,000 points for the same school, Linda Freeman expects the accomplishment will be repeated because so many opportunities have expanded since she was a player.
“It is a better game, the kids today are more skilled,” she said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219