The Perryville football team had a visitor last week. Former University of Notre Dame wide receiver, strength and conditioning coach, and former NFL wide receiver David Grimes worked with the team for approximately five days.
Grimes, who has a relationship with senior wide receiver Tyler Rhyne after 10 years of Rhyne participating in camps that he ran in South Bend, Ind, noted that he loves coming to Perryville. Grimes also spent time in Perryville in 2021.
“Perryville is a peaceful place,” Grimes said. “It definitely has its beauty. Everything that Perryville has going on there, from the country to the animals, is much different than city life.”
While he was with the Pirates, Grimes imparted on the team “a different way of training,” both physically and mentally from his days with the Fighting Irish and the NFL.
“You do that by putting them in difficult situations,” Grimes said. “One thing you must do is build their work capacity and provide an intense workout and challenge them to respond consistently. This transforms their body, but also their mind and helps them embrace adversity.”
Perryville football coach Brent Roth noted that most of the workouts consisted of football techniques, not plays and schemes.
“He taught a lot about movement on the field, such as foot placement and how to get that extra millisecond to be just a little faster” Roth said. “It opened their mind on ways to train and I think it raised their confidence level.”
Grimes saw improvement or change in the team by the time he left Perryville.
“Not so much physically, but I saw their perspective and attitude changed for the greater good,” Grimes said. “They welcomed that adversity and they want to be challenged. You could see that. They want to work hard and I appreciated that in return.”
