The 2024-2025 season wasn't an easy one for the Perryville Lady Pirates, but according to coach Jason Dreyer, there were still plenty of positive aspects.
The Lady Pirates' varsity squad — made up of three seniors and five sophomores — finished the season with a record of 9-18, something Dreyer, in his third year as head coach for the PHS girls, attributed to injuries among his players.
“We were dealing with injuries most of the year,” Dreyer said. “It seemed like we always had at least one or two girls that were not eligible to play due to some type of injury for most of the year. I feel like the injuries that we had this year was a major factor in why we kind of struggled winning some games this year.”
Dreyer highlighted the absence of sophomore Janie Porter, who served as the team's point guard last season as a freshman, as a major contributing factor, along with recurring injuries for fellow sophomore Abby Armberger.
“[Porter] tore her ACL and she she missed about half of our season this year,” Dreyer said, “and then when she came back, she wasn't 100 percent quite yet. Then Abby Amberger was dealing with some injuries — rolled ankles and knee stuff — a lot during the season.
“Then we just had some other just nagging injuries with some other players that did not allow us to be 100 percent.”
Those injuries did produce a decent benefit, Dreyer said, forcing his players to fill different roles at different times during the season.
“That will help us out in the future,” Dreyer said.
Despite those struggles, the Lady Pirates managed to finish in a tie for third in the Jefferson County Athletic Association Conference, with some team members earning postseason honors.
Armberger earned first-team JCAA honors and a spot on the Class 4, District 2 All-District team, while teammate Madeleine Gremaud, also a sophomore, earned an honorable mention on the JCAA squad.
The Lady Pirates' season included wins over Scott City (56-54), Oak Ridge (54-43), Scott County Central (50-33), Cape Central (42-32), Herculaneum (52-35), Grandview (45-33), Saxony Lutheran (45-26), DeSoto (60-56) and Windsor (54-48) and ended in the first round of district play with a 47-38 loss to St. Pius X.
PHS finished the season with an average of 43.1 points scored per game and allowed an average of 51.3 points against, with a 3-6 record at home and 3-9 on the road.
“We've had some success the last couple of years in our program and, at some point, your program has to go through some ups and downs,” Dreyer said.
“Hopefully, we learned a lot of lessons from this year because we did play a lot of younger kids and we returned a lot of the girls for the next two years.
“My sophomore group and my freshman group are pretty good, so with those two groups together for the next two or three years, we should bounce back. Hopefully.”
