FREEPORT — Freeport football and hockey have both had their glory days.

Kelly Mason was a part of the former. He's working to bring back the latter.

Mason is in his third year as varsity head coach of the Yellowjacket hockey team. A 1987 Freeport graduate, he was a starting safety-running back for the football team that finished 11-1 in 1985, legendary coach Don Earley's final season.

“Freeport didn't even have hockey back then,” Mason said. “The community was all football. We had a run of great years.

“I played recreational hockey back then. If the high school had a team, I definitely would have played. I was a hockey nut. My wife and mine's first date was to a Penguins game.”

When Freeport did form a hockey team, Dave Hepler was at the helm for a number of years. He guided the Yellowjackets to the Class A Penguins Cup in 2006. The team came within a second of getting to the Penguins Cup final in 2014.

“There was a core of good players in this program. They were contenders for a while,” Mason said.

When Hepler stepped down as head coach, Mel Reichenbaugh took the reins for a couple of years. Ryan Cooper was head coach for two seasons after him. Then Mason took over.

And he plans on being there for a long time.

“My end goal is to return Freeport hockey to the status of Penguins Cup contender on a steady basis,” he said. “That may take a little while, but I'm not planning on going anywhere.”

Freeport was 3-17 in Mason's first year as head coach. The team was 5-15 last season.

A number of this year's seniors — center Nico DiSanti, wingers Addison Stewart, Keith Smilowitz, Logan Horvath and Alex Legin, defensemen Jack Mason and Cole Mitchell — started at the varsity level as freshmen or sophomores.

“We took our lumps,” Mason recalled. “We began (2018 season) without a goalie. The kids talked senior Sean Fennell into coming back to the program and he hadn't played goalie since peewee hockey.

“He stepped into that role for us and was our team MVP that year.”

Last year, Nate Legin, a freshman, was the lone Yellowjacket netminder. Tyler Lane, a freshman, is the starting netminder this year and made 38 saves in a season-opening 7-4 win over Kiski Area. He stopped 27 shots in Thursday's 5-1 win over North Catholic as Freeport is off to a 2-0 start this season.

Lane played goalie for a Steel City Renegades team that went to nationals last year.

“He's making a big difference,” Freeport assistant coach Vic DiSanti said of Lane. “He's got great form and he's very energetic in the net.”

Nico DiSanti has scored four goals in two games. Smilowitz has netted three.

Assistant coach Jon Hill played for Coach Hepler with the Yellowjackets from 2007 to 2011.

“We struggled to put two full lines together at times,” Hill recalled. “The numbers just weren't there in the system, all the way down to the developmental level.

“We share a developmental program with Armstrong. There's a lot more Freeport kids there now than in the (recent) past. Interest is rising in Freeport hockey.”

The Yellowjackets have not fielded a junior varsity team in five years.

“We want to reach the point where we have solid numbers in place at the middle school, junior varsity and varsity levels,” Mason said. “We're not there yet, but we're trending in that direction.”

Coach DiSanti said a number of hockey players in the school district just haven't come out for the team in recent years.

“There's different reasons why kids don't sign up — financial, time commitment, education, etc.,” he said. “I'm confident we're gonna get more kids.

“We have a strong, experienced core on this team now. We expect to win and if we do, the interest will spark that much more.”

Just how much winning will the Yellowjackets do in 2020-21?

“I think we can contend for the Penguins Cup,” Mason said. “With our experience and talent, we're capable of making a run.”