YPSILANTI, Mich. – There were no distractions for young Derrick Fries. There was no television to distract us from the waters of Lake Watkins, not even the old-fashioned type with “bunny ears.”
That meant time sailing, swimming and water skiing outside of his parents' home in Waterford Township. Growing up in the early 1960s, his upbringing was all on the water, he said.
By his early 20s, Freese had become a world champion sailor. Now in the midst of his 50-year career as an educator, his swimming prowess led to him winning two national triathlon titles in his 60s.
How does the Eastern Michigan University professor, now in his 70s, win national titles in his off time? A lifelong passion for physical activity.
“My religion is movement,” he said.
Freese, along with Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, is on the ballot for the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame as a coach. Public voting for Hall of Fame induction voting closes on April 30th.
After achieving success as a sailor in international competition, Freese worked for 21 years as a Master Instructor Trainer with US Sailing.
“He is a great athlete in the sport of sailing,” said Tom Lovell, a four-time national sailing champion who nominated Freese, adding that Freese has made many contributions as a sailor and teacher.
Freese first set sail for this honor as a teenager on his father Glenn's boat at the local Watkins Lake Yacht Club. As a teenager, Fries was already outperforming locals in competitive skipping, the sport of captaining a sailboat. This earned him his first national tournament appearance at the age of 16, where he placed 21st against adults.
Fries finished 11th at the national championships the following year, qualifying him for the 1972 World Sailing Championships in Bermuda. He finished fourth, stating that the open ocean was easier to sail than the lakes in Michigan.
“I've done regattas on Lake Michigan and the waves can get pretty rough,” Freese said. “So we didn't have any major issues with the transition.”
The bigger change was adjusting to life at Michigan State University, where he balanced sailing with kinesiology and education courses. Although he won his 1973 national collegiate championship title in sailing, it took him more than four years to earn his degree, spending all his weekends on vacation competing.
“In my four and a half years at MSU, I was only on campus probably 10 weekends,” he said.
Freese won his first world title in Miami in 1975 and his second in Puerto Rico in 1978. Regardless of the age of his competitors, part of Freese's success is his “unparalleled” self-promotion, Lovell said.
Lovell added that French fries are very difficult to defeat due to their determination and stamina.
“He's just so fast,” Lovell said. “It's like being the fastest guy on the basketball court and the best shooter at the same time.”
At the same time as Freese captured the title, he was untying his career in education, starting with a job in physical education at a school in Pontiac.
After stints in Lake St. Clair and Birmingham, he began his 31-year career at Avondale School in Auburn Hills. During that time he achieved two more of his achievements in the Sailing World Championships. He placed second in California in 1982 and seventh in Curacao in 1991.
Combining physical fitness with a career in education, Freese was a finalist in the NASA Space Teacher Program in 1986.
After earning a master's degree in special education from Oakland University, Mr. Freese earned a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Michigan in 1993. Not only did that serve him well as superintendent of Avondale schools, but US Sailing sought him out as its own teacher. .
“They just started training and they were like, 'Freese won all the world championships,'” Freese said. “'And he's a teacher.'”
During all of this, Freese found time to write sailing textbooks such as “Start Sailing Right.” He said being a great sailor requires great strength, endurance and the ability to deal with ever-changing winds and conditions.
“This is a sport that uses too many senses,” he says. “The wind never blows straight.”
Mr. Fries left Avondale Schools and became a professor at EMU in 2006, specializing in special education, communication sciences and disorders. At the same time, he started trying out triathlons because of his “achievementist spirit.”
He entered the sprint category: 750 meters swimming, 20 km cycling, and 5 km running. He said the days he spent on the water during his childhood served him well.
“The big issue for a lot of people is swimming,” Frees says. “That ended up being one of my strengths.”
In the summer of 2013, he won his first National Triathlon title in Cleveland. He won again in 2015 in St. Paul, Minnesota, setting a new American course record in the 60-64 age group.
Fleece lives by the motto “Always keep moving.” He adheres to it to this day and in 2023 he will compete in 16 sporting events, from triathlons to regattas and running races.
Achieving this at age 70 takes a lot of luck, Freese said. Although some parts of his body don't function the same way they did when he was younger, his shoulders and knees are working fine, he said with a laugh.
“Obviously, I can't run that fast,” he said. “I'm older, but I can go out and get it done. I'm going to keep going until something happens.”
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