Gridiron: Potential is there for youthfull Pirates

From an injured quarterback to a 3-7 record last year, the Perryville Pirates are familiar with the woes that a season can bring. With the 2023 season growing ever closer, the Pirates are not dwelling on the pain from the past. They will be a young team, which third-year head coach Brent Roth said brings some uncertainty.

“We’re definitely a young group so you got to be careful, you don’t want to have your expectations too high. As a coaching staff, we’re still a little uncertain about how good we are, just with these young guys filling in,” Roth said. “We definitely see the capability from time to time and then other times we remember we see a mess up and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, that guy’s still a sophomore.’ So we definitely want to win more games and last year, if we could get to .500 I think that would be a success for us.”

While many new faces are young, the Pirates will have a few returning starters on both sides of the ball. Returning senior quarterback Rilaynd Graham, who replaced last year’s injured quarterback in Week 3, will lead the offense. As a senior with experience in the starting role, expectations are high, but Roth believes Graham has the capacity to handle himself well.

Perryville head coach Brent Roth watches a play during a football summer camp.

“He’s a high-character kid who does all the things you expect,” Roth said. “So now he’s just got to make it happen on the field and take his game to the next level this year, which is what we’re planning on.”

Graham will be behind three returning senior starters on the offensive line, but that is where the familiarity stops with a sophomore running back, fullback, and junior pass catchers in both receivers and the tight end.

The Perryville defense is a similar story. Junior linebacker Wyatt Schremp and senior defensive lineman Caleb Triller are two returning starters tasked with leading the youthful squad. Roth said that although the team is young some of them do have varsity experience just not as a starter.

Perryville lineman Caleb Triller, center, gets into position before the start of a play in summer practice. (Photo by Tony Capobianco)

“A lot of these guys have stints with varsity playing time, Chase Richardet wasn’t a starter but got in the game last year and had three interceptions so we know what he’s capable of,” Roth said. “Everybody else is just kind of battling it out and just gonna see let the cream rise to the top and see who plays the best.”

Perryville is not just building towards this season but also the future of the program. Roth said that not only do they obviously want to win more games, but a conference championship and a district win are goals farther into the horizon.“We want to win the conference and in order to do that, there are seven teams in our conference, six opponents. So you’re talking about winning five or six of those games in order to be the conference champs and that’s one of our main goals, it probably is our main goal,” Roth said. “If we do that and get up around that five-six win mark I think could be a success. But there is a higher ceiling to that as well. I think if the stars align and the guys do what they’re capable of you know, we can we can win games.”

The Pirates open up the 2023 season on the road against Oakville at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 25 before returning home to take on Windsor at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2 at Perryville High School.

__Perryville__

__Coach:__ Bret Roth (Third season with team; 5-15 team record; 5-15 career record)

__Last Season:__ 3-7 (0-2 I55)

__Key returns:__ Rilaynd Graham, Wyatt Schremp, Caleb Triller

__Key losses:__ Ben Hotop, Ethan Blythe, Aiden McGarvey,

__Schedule__

8/25 at Oakville, 7 p.m.

9/1 vs. Windsor, 7 p.m.

9/8 at St. Vincent, 7. p.m.

9/15 vs. Bayless, 7 p.m.

9/21 vs. Grandview, 7 p.m.

10/6 at New Madrid County Central, 7 p.m.

10/13 at Herculaneum, 7 p.m.

10/20 vs. St. Pius, 7 p.m.