Book to focus on Perry County football

The history of Perryville and St. Vincent squads are chronicled in Nick Antoine's work.

Nick Antoine does not have any ties to Southeast Missouri, just a love of history.

That passion led Antoine to take on the challenge of writing a book chronicling the century-long history of high school football in Perryville. More than two years after starting the project, Antoine likely knows more about Perryville football than the residents of the city themselves.

Antoine's years of work will come to fruition with the soon-to-be-released book "Pirates & Indians: A Football Tradition in Perry County," which is published by the Republic-Monitor and scheduled for a mid-August release.

"One of the things I take great pride in, moving from St. Louis, I really learned a lot about the area," Antoine said.

It was nearly a year after moving down from St. Louis that Antoine was approached by the former editor of the Republic Monitor about writing his first book. Antoine, a graduate of St. Louis University High School, had moved down from St. Louis to take a job at Salem-Lutheran School in Farrar.

Intrigued by the idea, Antoine set forth to try and write one of the most detailed and fact-filled high school sports books ever written. Two years later those ideas finally were able to take shape.

"At the very beginning it was a big jig-saw puzzle of 1,000 pieces spread over the floor and I couldn't see anything," Antoine said. "By the 18th and 24th month I started seeing the end of the tunnel, and I saw it could be a great book."

The initial plan for the book, according to Antoine, was to write a chapter for every season from 1950-2004 for both Perryville and St. Vincent High School, with decade synapses for each decade before 1950.

While that plan was later altered in order to pare the book's length, Antoine said he had already finished about 60 to 70 chapters and continued to do the year-by-year research.

"The great thing about the way I had worked is by visiting each year it allowed me the opportunity to get familiar with each team," Antoine said.

As Antoine got more into his research the scope of the book broadened, with more time focused on history of the area along with more emphasis put on opponents of both Perryville and St. Vincent.

"The book is not just about St. Vincent and Perryville," Antoine said. "They have been playing teams for three-fourths a century, and those teams are very much part of the book."

Antoine said wins over larger schools like Cape Girardeau Central took on great importance for those teams.

"Those wins over Cape for Perryville -- and there were only seven -- I talked to those people, and those wins were bigger than their marriages," Antoine said with a laugh.

Through his research, Antoine said he was able to track down the team mascots and colors for nearly all of the opponents both Perryville and St. Vincent ever played, including many schools which no longer exist. Antoine said it was such little things that make the book special.

"To me it was a big deal, and as I started to put the book together, I could start to see this was the best high school book ever," he said.

The release of the book follows one of the best years in Perryville football history, as Perryville High School and St. Vincent each won district titles for only the second time in the same year. Previously both squads had won district titles in 1998.

Of course, further highlighting the year was the first state title for St. Vincent. The Indians routed East Buchanan 21-0 in the Class 1 title game. Perryville also won a state title in 1968.

Antoine said it was appropriate both Perryville and St. Vincent had such great seasons in the final season covered in the book.

"The night before St. Vincent played East Buchanan, I looked up to God and prayed, 'Let them win,'" he said. "I knew those two stories would put a great capsule on the book."

The book will contain photos from both Perryville and St. Vincent, along with interviews from former players and coaches. Among the features of the book are two book covers, one for St. Vincent and one for Perryville.

Antoine said he is very anxious to see how his first book is accepted by football fans in Perryville and around the area.

"Overall, I'm hoping what people are going to say is we were just overwhelmed by the data and stories," he said.

Republic Monitor publisher Jim Beaver said the book will have its release party Aug. 27 at Keller Motors in Perryville. Beaver said the book will contain about 80 pages devoted to each school, with 1,000 books to be published. He said several hundred books have already been pre-ordered.