Winkler moves across town to coach Pirates

~ Perryville's new football coach spent nine years at St. Vincent.

Keith Winkler's commute will change in the fall.

Barely.

Winkler, who has spent the last nine years as the St. Vincent football coach, was named the new football coach at Perryville High School at Tuesday's school board meeting.

"Nine years ago, I asked my wife and daughters to pick up," Winkler said. "We left St. Charles to come down here. They've really become attached to the community. ... Uprooting them because dad wants a new challenge, I just didn't feel was fair to them at this point in time. When this presented itself, it just seemed like the right time to do this."

Winkler led St. Vincent to the Class 1 state title in 2004, and posted a 69-33 record during his tenure at the school. His Indians qualified for the postseason this past season, falling to Valle Catholic 41-17 in a Class 1 regional and finishing the season 6-5.

He takes over for Jim May, who left Perryville to become the football coach at Scott City. The Pirates went 3-8 under May, but qualified for the Class 3 postseason, where they lost to Ste. Genevieve 50-20.

"It's a new adventure for me as a coach, a challenge of stepping up from a Class 1 to Class 3 program," Winkler said. "It's a challenge and I look forward to it. I know coach May has done a good job over there, and what I do know of the program, they were starting to turn it around there at the end of the year."

Winkler, who graduated from St. Vincent 25 years ago, said he'll build a winner at Perryville by stressing fundamentals every day.

"I think it's going to be the hard work ethic, getting in there and just doing the fundamentals right," Winkler said. "Whoever blocks, tackles and runs the ball well usually wins ballgames. That's going to be what we're going to stress. We're going to stress the fundamentals and get after it. Coach May has done a great job. I've got some big shoes to fill over there."

St. Vincent athletic director Bruce Valleroy said Winkler, who will teach physical education at Perryville, told him about a week ago that he planned to leave.

"That's going to be a tough act to follow," Valleroy said. "He's done a great job for us, the nine years it's been. It's been a good run and he's done a great job. We're just going to open it up and see who's interested and do some searching ourselves too and see if we can find someone here hopefully [and] in the next few weeks we have it taken care of."

Valleroy said he didn't think any of the Indians assistants would be interested in replacing Winkler. He said he'll miss having Winkler around since they've known each other for years.

"I like the same routine over and over," Valleroy said. "Once you get used to someone being there, and Keith and I have known each other since high school, it's tough for nine years coming in every day and seeing the same person and knowing the same routine every year."

Winkler said he enjoyed his time at St. Vincent, but the opportunity to coach at a larger school in town was too good to pass up.

"It kind of intrigued me to see what was out there and how Perryville High School and I fit together," he said. "We love the community, we're from this community, and we would like to stay here."