How a Southeast Raleigh football recruit is engineering his own path to NC State

Southeast Raleigh High’s football team follows a “7:25/2:25 Rule” among coach Edwin Campbell’s standards. It equals the daily school hours.

“It means be accountable,” said junior running back Christian Freeman. “It means take care of your schoolwork, be respectful to your teachers and other students. Be a helping hand.”

If the players need a reminder, they start each week on Monday morning hearing Freeman’s voice. After he finishes his morning workout in the weight room, at 7:25 he takes to the school’s public address microphone and greets students, faculty and staff with school announcements.

“My mom (Diane) said it would be a good idea,” Freeman said. “It helps with me with pronouncing words and speaking loud enough to be heard clearly.”

Campbell says the role is typical of Freeman’s work ethic.

“He has been a vocal leader ever since the day he walked on campus as a freshman,” Campbell said. “He doesn’t mind challenging older guys in practice and the classroom. He’s had an instant impact on our program and off the field.”

Freeman, who carries a 4.1 grade-point average, has helped Southeast Raleigh to a 3-1 start as it opens Greater Neuse River 7A Conference play at 7 p.m. Friday at Garner (3-1).

Power and confidence

The 5-foot-9, 196-pound Freeman has run 48 times for 363 yards and four touchdowns and caught 14 passes for 211 yards and three more TDs.

Although the Bulldogs are coming off their first loss, falling 30-22 to state-power Cardinal Gibbons (4-0) last week, the one-score result represented program strides. Gibbons is ranked No. 2 in the state’s No. 7A Division. The most recent time the teams met was in 2020, and Gibbons beat the Bulldogs, 42-0.

In last week’s game on Southeast’s field, the Bulldogs closed the deficit to 30-22 late in the fourth quarter. Southeast’s defense forced a punt, and the offense took possession needing to drive 91 yards for a touchdown.

With 52 seconds remaining, the Bulldogs faced a fourth-and-8 near midfield. Quarterback Tydreke Powell Jr. was pressured out of the pocket and took a hit. As he looked to his left, Freeman was where he was supposed to be as a release valve. Powell passed him the ball along the sideline.

Freeman sidestepped one Gibbons tackler and shed another. He was hit by a couple more defenders converging on him near the first-down yard marker. Freeman lunged with power through contact. He stretched his arms to extend the ball’s spot and pulled it back before a Gibbons defender could knock it away.

The refs, though, spotted the ball where he pulled it back instead of the stretch.

“If I was an inch taller, I might have made it,” Freeman said. “Football is a game of inches.”

Engineering his own path

Not that Freeman views his height as limiting his game. His favorite player is 5-foot-8 Barry Sanders, the 1988 Heisman Trophy winner and College and Pro Football Hall of Famer.

But aside from height humor, understand that another player without Freeman’s talent might have gone down on the first hit and come up five yards short.

You could say Freeman is one of a kind on Southeast’s football field, but at home and on campus he has two triplet sisters, Christi and Christa. Christi is a manager with the football team and Christa was a manager for the basketball team who is now committed to her part-time job.

Christian’s college plans are in place after he committed on July 4 to N.C. State’s 2027 recruiting class. He may have been Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren’s easiest recruiting target in his 13 years at the school.

To start with, Freeman says he grew up an N.C. State fan. In addition, he was drawn to N.C. State’s engineering program through the Zebulon Middle School STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

“When I was in seventh grade, we were building small cellular cars, and the program was connected to N.C. State,” Freeman said. “I fell in love with the building process.”

His career interest led him to Southeast Raleigh’s magnet program, the Academy of Engineering and Information Technology. He’s in his third year of the four-year program and has narrowed his focus to architectural engineering. He’s working on a model house with pieces of plywood and popsicle sticks.

Stability returns to Southeast Raleigh

Freeman gained his first varsity experience as a freshman in 2023 when he played a limited role. The Bulldogs’ 5-5 regular season record earned a postseason trip for the first time since 2017. Although the season ended with a loss to Apex Friendship, a young team gained experience. Freeman was ready for the step up, intercepting a pass while playing safety.

Campbell, a 2007 Southeast Raleigh graduate, eagerly took on the Bulldogs’ rebuilding task when he was hired in 2020 during the pandemic (the season was played in the spring of 2021). He had coached at Wake County and at Charlotte-area high schools before returning home. Now in his sixth year, he has improved roster numbers from 58 players to 110. Another stability sign is 20 of the 22 starters have been at the school since their freshman season.

“I love it here,” Campbell said. “Southeast Raleigh has its challenges, but I’ve always told the kids the reason I push them so hard is I see something in them, and they can make it.

“My parents are still in the community. We have coaches and teachers who come back and support us.”

‘You’re a leader’

At the Gibbons game, college recruiting interest was evident on the sidelines for both rosters. Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert was among recruiters spotted along with North Carolina, Duke, Furman and Campbell.

Three Southeast Raleigh seniors committed in the 2026 class are defensive end Keysaun Eleazer, Stanford; the veteran quarterback Powell, Gardner Webb; and senior linebacker Robert McCullough, Campbell.

In addition to Freeman, two more juniors drawing Division I interest are running back James Adams IV and wide receiver Adam Saunders.

Adams and Freeman have formed a potent 1-2 punch out of the backfield. Adams has 31 carries for 291 yards and five touchdowns and three receptions for 66 yards and a TD.

The player drawing the heaviest recruiting interest is sophomore offensive tackle Grayson Williams (6-5, 310). His 21 offers include N.C. State and North Carolina, along with recruiting heavyweights Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee and Miami.

But at the heart of engineering the rebuild is Freeman.

“I saw how we can build a community at this school,” Freeman said of his teammates. “I had people in my ear telling me to transfer. My mom told me, ‘You’re a leader and can help build something at Southeast Raleigh.’

“People respect us now. It’s paying off.”