Hoboken's Freeman named Male Athlete of the Year

It’s safe to say that Nyjon Freeman was simply destined for football greatness when he was a youngster.

But honestly, it wasn’t at the first position that Freeman played in Pee-Wee football in Hoboken.

“When I was seven years old, I was the center,” Freeman said. “Honestly, it was my choice. No one knew what I was capable of.”

However, there was a pursuit drill at practice and Freeman had to run after the running back.

“I ran up the sidelines and caught the kid,” Freeman said. “The coaches all said, ‘Man, this kid is fast.’ So they told my Dad that they were moving me to running back and I actually was crying. I didn’t want to do it.”

Soon after Freeman saw his position change, so did his attitude.

“Then I started scoring touchdowns and the journey began,” Freeman said.

By the time Freeman was in eighth grade, the comparisons began with all the great running backs in Hoboken history that had come before him, immortal names like Dwayne Peterson, Ravon Anderson, Tyrell Dortch and the guy who would eventually coach Freeman at Hoboken High School Keeon Walker.

Freeman scored an astounding 44 touchdowns during his final season of Pop Warner youth football when Freeman was in eighth grade. Instantly, Freeman was being tabbed as the next Peterson or the next Dortch. Those things naturally happen when you reach the end zone 44 times.

“Honestly, it felt like every time I touched the ball, I scored,” Freeman said. “I just got the ball and ran and ended up in the end zone. It just started to feel easy for me.”

Sure, Freeman heard the comparisons.

“I knew all the names,” Freeman said. “It was an honor for me to be compared to the greats. I just had to stay hungry and humble. I had to push myself to get better and better.”

From left, Hoboken head football coach Keeon Walker, Hudson County Male Athlete of the Year Nyjon Freeman, Jim Hague and Hoboken head boys' basketball coach Shaun Kolmer honor Freeman as he receives his 2019-2020 Jim Hague Sports Male Athlete of the Year award.

So when Freeman arrived at Hoboken High a little more than three years ago, he felt he was ready.

“I had decent size,” Freeman said. “I was 5-foot-10 and weighed about 160 (pounds). I thought that I would get crushed when I got to high school, but after the first time I got hit, I said, ‘I can do this.’ I was ready. I was alright. Everyone was just a little bigger and stronger.”

Freeman was also a fine basketball player. In fact, at a young age, Freeman preferred basketball to football.

“Basketball was always my top sport,” Freeman said. “It’s really a lot of fun and dunking is my favorite thing to do. I started dunking in eighth grade and I never stopped.”

Hoboken head boys’ basketball coach Shaun Kolmer knew that Freeman had basketball talent as well.

“I taught Nyjon in grammar school (Connors School in Hoboken) from second through sixth grade,” Kolmer said. “And I told his father in fourth grade that I never had a kid like Nyjon. I said then that he was going to be special. He did other things like lead the class in exercises and demonstrated the games we were trying to teach. He was always just a genuine athlete. And he was the only freshman I ever had to start varsity.”

Freeman wanted to be the next Kevin Durant, but he stopped growing before he hit an inch over six feet tall, a foot shorter than the injured Brooklyn Nets star.

“I grew up an Oklahoma City (Thunder) fan,” Freeman said. “Durant could dribble and shoot over everyone. He can do everything. I wanted to be like him. I think I was pretty good in both sports. I just became more successful in football and chose football to be my path.”

Freeman had a decent freshman season playing varsity football as a freshman, but was all set to make a huge splash as a sophomore. In fact, in his first game as a sophomore in 2017 against Verona, Freeman motored for 287 yards and four touchdowns.

Walker, the head football coach, knew that Freeman was on the precipice of immortality.

“A lot of people took notice of him when he played youth football and scored a ton of touchdowns,” Walker said. “I think we all knew right away that Nyjon was the real deal. He had the potential to be something special. He was able to play at such a high level right away. He could make plays anywhere we put him, at running back, at slot receiver, at wing back. He was a glider who ran so smooth. We saw what he could do, so we opened the offense up more.”

Incredibly, Hoboken had run the Delaware Wing-T offensive set with all of the great running backs in the past, guys like the aforementioned Peterson (who once scored an incredible nine touchdowns in one game), Anderson, Dortch and Walker all got their yards and TDs out of the Wing-T.

“We just wanted to try to get Nyjon in open space more,” Walker said. “If we were able to get him in space and make one or two guys miss, he was off.”

However, midway through his sophomore year, Freeman hit a speed bump on that road to immortality. Nope, make that a mountain of an obstacle.

Walker was on the sidelines when disaster struck.

“I wasn’t in direct line of sight,” Walker said. “At first, I didn’t notice what happened. I thought maybe someone rolled into Nyjon and rolled over his knee.”

“At first, I didn’t feel anything,” Freeman said. “But once I fell to the ground and saw my leg bent in a way it shouldn’t be bent, I knew it was trouble. It was a sight I never wanted to see again.”

Freeman’s leg appeared to be dangling and hanging on by a thread.

“I tried to remain calm and I tried to remain positive,” Walker said. “But I knew it was bad. In the back of my mind, I knew it was going to be tough to come back from that. Watching the tape, I never saw anything that bad and that type of injury. It was pretty gruesome.”

Even Freeman couldn’t remain optimistic.

“I thought everything was over,” Freeman said. “I watched the play on Hudl (the website that produces videos of all high school football games) and watched it over and over, because I wanted to see how I got hurt. It looks like four defenders fell on me and made my knee collapse.”

Freeman suffered one of the worst knee injuries ever recorded. He almost separated his entire knee from its socket. He suffered a litany of ligament damages – “I tore the ACL, the PCL, the MCL and the LCL, as well as the meniscus,” Freeman said – and needed to undergo three reconstructive surgeries. The first ACL surgery didn’t fully take, so the doctors in Christ Hospital had to do it again.

“It changed my life forever,” Freeman said.

Freeman thought that he would just sit out the basketball season and would be back in time to play football in the fall of 2018 for his junior year, but that didn’t happen.

“I was doing rehab five days a week for two hours a day,” Freeman said. “My range of motion was the toughest thing I had to do to come back. Everything in that leg was torn.”

It was a lot for a 15-year-old kid to endure.

From left, Debra Jones, Freeman's grandmother, John Freeman of Wiz TV, Freeman's father, Freeman and Freeman's mother Terina Jones

“I was stressing every night,” Freeman said. “I would sometimes cry myself to sleep. I wondered if I was ever going to be able to walk again.”

If there was one positive thing that happened with the horrific knee injury, it was that Freeman’s grades improved.

But being on the sidelines for nearly two full years nearly broke Freeman’s spirit.

“It was really hard seeing my teammates fight for every play and I couldn’t do anything to help them,” Freeman said. “I always wanted to remain positive, but it was tough not being on the court or on the field. It broke my heart to see my teammates lose.”

In July of 2019, Freeman finally got the medical clearance to return to football practice, but he could only do so wearing a heavy protective brace.

“It took a little while, but I began to feel more comfortable wearing the brace,” Freeman said. “That brought a lot of joy to me. I was growing and getting stronger.”

Walker remained positive that Freeman would have some sort of an impact on his football team.

“I knew that he had the maturity level to be capable to return,” Walker said. “I knew he was mature enough to handle it. One of my main concerns was whether his body could handle it. He was still young when he suffered the injury. It wasn’t like he was a fully grown man. But he showed signs that he could handle everything.”

Freeman knew that he couldn’t play football with the fear of getting hurt again.

“It’s tough playing football and still being hesitant,” Freeman said. “I couldn’t worry about the knee and the brace. I just had to play. And when I played, I felt good.”

Freeman had moments of brilliance last fall, rushing for 268 yards and scoring three touchdowns against Cedar Grove and 185 yards in a game against Newark Collegiate. He also had 100-yards plus in games against Verona and Weequahic. All totaled, Freeman rushed for 1,296 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“I think he was just showing glimpses of what he could be,” Walker said. “I don’t know if there was anyone else who could have been able to do what he did. I always said that if he’s healthy, Nyjon could play with anyone.”

Incredibly, Freeman tore ligaments in his shoulder during the Redwings’ loss to Weequahic in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I playoffs that kept him out for the first half of the basketball season.

But when Freeman came back, he played with reckless abandon.

His highlight reel play came against a very good Snyder team, when Freeman blocked a shot on a player six inches taller than him and blocked it off the backboard. Freeman then secured the rebound and took the ball the length of the floor for a layup and a foul, subsequently making the free throw. It was one of the best single plays ever made by a Hoboken basketball player.

“Obviously, football is his sport, but Nyjon was always able to jump to the moon,” Kolmer said. “I think him being able to compete in football helped his confidence to play basketball. I watched him practice every day and that play (against Snyder) didn’t surprise me, because I saw it every day.”

Freeman averaged 11 points and nine rebounds per game. He scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds against county tournament finalist Marist, had 16 points against Union City and had 12 points and 11 rebounds against Dickinson.

So for his incredible comeback and his performance on the gridiron and the hardwood, Freeman has been selected as the Jim Hague Sports Male Athlete of the Year for 2019-2020. Freeman is the sixth Hoboken male athlete to receive the award since fellow Hoboken grad Jason Casessa garnered the first award in 1992. Freeman is the first Hoboken athlete to receive the award since Jason Blanks, Sr. was awarded in 2003 and ironically, Blanks and Freeman are cousins.

“I’m blessed,” Freeman said. “I thank the coaching staff for having the faith in me and believing in me. It was hard. The gift I got from my Dad (John Freeman, who is the video giant behind Wiz TV) was to remain positive and keep a smile on my face. Even on the days that I was sad, I found a way to smile.”

Freeman’s coaches sing their athlete’s praises.

“I was blessed to have him,” Kolmer said. “He’s a generational talent. Kids like Nyjon Freeman don’t grow off trees. He’s just one of the nicest kids I ever coached. Just recently, he sent me a text and said, ‘Coach, I hope all is well with you and your family.’ That’s the kind of kid he is.”

“What can I say?” Walker said. “He’s one of the best we’ve ever had. But through it all, it was able to focus on doing his rehab and getting back on the field.”

Because of the knee injury, Freeman did not receive any scholarship offers of note, so he took the invitation to try to walk on at Rutgers University and has already begun workouts with coach Greg Schiano and the Scarlet Knights.

“I think he just needs to prove to everyone he can play at that level,” Walker said. “But he’s capable.”

“I think all the others are going to regret not recruiting me,” Freeman said.

After all Nyjon Freeman has been through, who’s going to deny this kid?

HUDSON COUNTY-JIM HAGUE SPORTS

 MALE ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

1991-1992-Jason Casessa, Hoboken

1992-1993-Alex Rodriguez, Secaucus

1993-1994-Eduardo Gomez, Hoboken

1995-1996-Rashard Casey, Hoboken

1996-1997-Czar Wiley, North Bergen

1997-1998-Koz Perez, North Bergen

1998-1999-Mike Forcum, Hoboken

1999-2000-Jonathan Robinson, Memorial

2001-2002-Bryan Durango, Memorial

2002-2003-Jason Blanks, Hoboken

2003-2004-Danny Lopez, Weehawken

2004-2005-Mike Brown, St. Peter’s Prep

2005-2006-Garrett Askew, Hudson Catholic

2006-2007-Evan Rodriguez, North Bergen

2007-2008-Chris Jones, Lincoln

2008-2009-Michael Kuzirian, Memorial

2009-2010-Kevin Innis, St. Peter’s Prep

2010-2011-Jose Veras, Dickinson

2011-2012-Jason Pineda, Weehawken

2012-2013-Damian Corredor, Weehawken

2013-2014-Tyrik Darby, Lincoln

2014-2015-Corey Caddle, St. Peter’s Prep

2015-2016-Royaal Jones, Hudson Catholic

2016-2017-Jorge Portorreal, St. Peter’s Prep

2017-2018-Shayne Simon, St. Peter’s Prep

2018-2019-Ayir Asante, St. Peter’s Prep

2019-2020-Nyjon Freeman, Hoboken