Pirates try to get back on rebuilding path after injuries

Perryville boys basketball coach Joel Roth last year took over a team that had won just five games in 2002-03.

Roth was confident that the Pirates could improve upon that mark in his first year. They did, but by only one game, finishing 2003-04 season with a 6-18 record.

"I thought coming into last year that we could double our win total from the previous year," Roth said. "But we had a lot of problems with injuries. We lost 48 games from kids who were projected to be in our top six or seven. If we had been healthy we could easily have won 10 games and maybe even finished at .500."

Scott Ozark and Kyle Dobbelare were projected to be the team's top two scorers but they played together for just one game last season.

Ozark, who is a 6-foot-4 senior center, is back this year after missing much of last season with a dislocated shoulder.

"Scott can be one of the better players in the conference," Roth said. "He had the size at 6-4 and at least 200 pounds, and he is fairly athletic for his size. He can do a lot of things on the floor."

Seniors Andrew Norman and Phillip Buerck return with starting experience. Norman is a forward while Buerck moves from the shooting guard to point guard.

The team will have a lot of new faces with four seniors out who did not play last year.

Corey Buerck has not played basketball since he was a freshman. Matt Schamburg has not played basketball since junior high. Neither has Keith Hotop, who at 6-3 gives Perryville some needed size. Forward Milan Klaus is another senior newcomer.

"I am not sure how we compare skill-wise with last year's team," Roth said. "But we are definitely a lot bigger and stronger. We had to be one of the smallest Class 4 teams in the state last year. We only started one player over 6 foot. We had a lot of match-up problems on the defensive end last year. We should be a lot better defensively this year."

Roth realizes that it is going to take a while for this team to gel with many new players, and seven players from the playoff-qualifying football team.

"I would anticipate a slow start," Roth said. "It might not be very pretty early on. But I think this team has the ability to get that win total up. A .500 mark would be a huge thing for the Perryville program. It has been a long time since that has happened, and if it does I would be extremely happy."

Perryville gets started Monday in the Potosi Tournament.