Even as his team is launching its current season, Perryville High School girls basketball coach Jason Dreyer has one eye on the next.
That’s somewhat understandable, since the Lady Pirates don’t have a single senior on the roster.
“We have got four juniors and six sophomores that comprise the varsity team,” Dreyer said. “The four juniors have all been starters in the past at some point. The six sophomores have not played any varsity. So we’re relatively young, although our juniors have quite a bit of varsity experience.”
While that could make things difficult for the Lady Pirates this season, it bodes well for the 2026-2027 season.
“We’ll have this team for two straight years, which will be nice,” Dreyer said.
Before that happens, the Lady Pirates will have to make their way through this season, and Dreyer said he has a good idea of what his team needs to accomplish.
“I think our goals are to play a lot faster this year, get a lot more possessions in the game, and try to get a lot more shots up,” Dreyer said. “I think we’re doing a good job of doing that. As far as a team, our goal is to try to just grow closer as a team. And then I think a realistic goal is to win 15 to 20 games.”
The Lady Pirates finished last season with a record of 9-18, averaging 43.1 points per game while giving up 51.3. The Lady Pirates opened their season at the Fredericktown tournament on Dec. 3 with a 63-58 loss to Neelyville and a 44-37 loss to Park Hills Central on Dec. 4.
Dreyer said improving shouldn’t be too difficult.
“Our point guard, Janie Porter, is coming back off an ACL injury,” Dreyer said. “She’s been doing really good so far in practice. Abby Amberger led us in scoring last year at about 19 points a game. She is returning. She’s a first-team all-conference, all-district player. And then we are just looking forward to a couple of our sophomores, especially our post players, stepping up and getting into some varsity action. I think we’ll be much improved on the inside this year versus years past.”
Dreyer sees the team’s relative youth as a positive in the long run.
“I think it’s a good place where we’re at,” he said. “Our four juniors that we have have played varsity for almost two years now — a few of them just one year. And then our sophomores, I think they’re just going to gain a ton of experience this year, that’s gonna help them on varsity. A few of them will also be getting extra minutes on JV. I think throughout the year, we should continue to get better and better as we get more experience. Obviously, that is gonna help us next year, hopefully returning everybody on next year’s team.”
Overall, Dreyer sees this season as a rebuilding year, but one with plenty of promise.
“I really do think that we’ll improve a ton from now to the end of the season,” he said, “and then that will just help us in the future as well.”
