Former Pirates assistant returns to lead Perryville's program

~ James H. MAY III is hired as head coach.

Perryville hired a familiar face as its new head football coach.

Chaffee assistant coach James H. May III, a former assistant at Perryville, replaces Rick Chastain, who stepped down in December.

"I was looking for an opportunity to be a head coach, and that opportunity came open," May said. "I didn't think there would be a better opportunity out there for me than that one."

May, who spent the 2004-05 school year as an assistant football coach at Perryville before heading to Chaffee, will be introduced formally before the Pirates' home boys basketball game against Oak Ridge on Tuesday.

"In talking to the superintendent there [at Chaffee], [May] kind of did a lot of the head coaching duties since the head coach [Charlie Vickery] is retired, but still doing football coaching for them, but not there at school all the time," Perryville assistant superintendent Russell Leek said. "So he kind of took up a lot of the head coaching duties because he was there at school and it gave him some experience.

"And he was weight training coordinator. ... Their superintendent said that his work there helped all the kids get stronger in all the sports."

Perryville received about 10 applications and also had some phone inquires about the position.

Leek said the junior class -- next year's senior football players -- was in eighth grade when May was an assistant coach at Perryville, so he didn't coach any of the players that will be on the team next year.

"We set up a meeting with those boys who would be playing football next year as seniors to meet the two [coaching candidates]," Leek said. "The reaction we had from the kids was really positive."

May plans to spend plenty of time getting to know his new team.

"Probably my biggest challenge is getting to know the kids because I've been gone so long that all the ones I knew when I was there are already graduated and gone," May said. "Being at Chaffee, I didn't get to see a lot of what they did or how they did it. Until I get into that, it's going to be getting to know the kids and what I got, and see how we're going to attack it to get better."

May is a graduate of Scott City High School and Southeast Missouri State. He served as an assistant for the baseball team and will assist the track team this spring.

May is certified to teach both social studies and physical education, and Leek said the school likely will use him as a physical education teacher at the high school.

May will remain at Chaffee through the end of this school year.

Leek said it was important to hire someone by February.

"We're excited [about the hire] for a lot of different reasons," Leek said. "One, the sooner, you can get something like this established, the sooner you can start the excitement for the next year. And, the sooner you can stop people asking, 'When are you going to hire a football coach.'"