Rebuilding Perryville hoops is a 'process' for Hale

DEXTER – Depending on your perspective, one could assess the recent Perryville High School boy’s basketball season in a couple of ways.

The Pirates were better statistically both offensively and defensively than the previous season, and their five victories equaled the previous two seasons combined.

But to be fair and honest, Perryville did win just five games, and also had a senior-heavy rotation.

When asked what it was going to take to get Perryville to return to area relevance on the court, first-year Pirate coach Brett Hale didn’t mince words.

“That is a good question,” Hale said. “We’re trying, but that is a question that I have been asking myself.”

Hale can start with the indisputable fact that Perryville IS capable of fielding a competitive program.

From 2014 through 2019, the Pirates won double-digit games every season and in 2011 and 2012, the program won a combined 42 games.

“What is it going to take to get it back,” Hale asked himself, “because it has been a decade or so since we’ve been very good.”

The Pirates also can build on the fact that the program was better this season than in recent years.

Perryville improved its offensive average this season by 14 points per game, which in a 32-minute contest is no small feat.

Hale’s kids were also better defensively by five points per outing.

Another fact that Hale pointed out was that his team was competitive in many games this season.

“This was the first time (since 2019) that we won even five games,” Hale said, “and there were like six more that we were competitive in.”

That is accurate. There were six games this season that Perryville dropped by single digits.

“This was a start,” Hale said. “It doesn’t sound great to say we won five games, but it was a start.”

In the closing game, an MSHSAA Class 4 District 1 loss to Notre Dame, Perryville utilized four players who will return next season and has 13 freshmen, eight sophomores, and four juniors in the program.

“We’ve got to get our younger kids excited to play,” Hale said. “I think that we’ve got a pretty good group of freshmen here that we can build on.

“We’ve got to get our young kids excited and just kind of start to build a little bit of competitiveness in the program. So, it is going to be a process. It’s not going to happen next year.”

Obviously, Hale, who was the all-time leading scorer in Dexter High School history until two weeks ago, has the experience and pedigree to get the Pirates back on track.

He is the son of Missouri Sports Hall of Fame coach Paul Hale and played four years at Southeast Missouri State for Gary Garner, who won 126 games during his time with the Redhawks.

He spent six years coaching at Farmington High School, before working at Bismarck (one year), Potosi (six years) and worked at Perryville as an assistant for “a couple of years” before ascending to lead the program this year.

He said it is imperative to infuse the Perryville program with basketball players, not just athletes that play basketball. That is not to say that they can’t be active in other sports, but they need to have a passion for basketball that carries on throughout the calendar year.

“Most of them are basketball players,” Hale explained, “We’ve got a lot of kids who play baseball and a lot that play football, which is fine. I like that.

“But they do show up in the summer and I think that they will next summer. So, we’re going to try and build this. We’ve got a little bit more talented freshmen that are coming. Hopefully, that will start the process.”