New coach, new system leads to new winning for Perryville hoops

Friday, Feb. 7, was a unique senior night for the Perryville boys basketball.

Not just because it's the Pirates' first home game since Dec. 13, but because their 75-54 win over De Soto puts Perryville above .500 for the first time since 2019.

It was the largest crowd Perryville has seen for a boys basketball game in a long time, and the fans, family members and fellow classmates alike, were rewarded with a compelling first half and a dominating second half.

“They haven’t had many people come into their games in the past few years,” Perryville head coach Chris Hahn said. “You get a little tight, but after, we kind of settled down a little bit in the second quarter. I think they really feed off it.”

With every tip and transition layup in the second quarter and every three-pointer in the second half, the gym erupted with excitement. Which certainly fueled a 27-point third quarter rally to take control of the game.

“We got a great student section that is involved,” Hahn said. “It’s nice to have an atmosphere where basketball is important and exciting to watch.”

The Pirates started the eventful week with their first win over the rival St. Vincent Indians since 2019. In between that game and Friday was an impressive 55-49 win over Jefferson (12-8) on the road Wednesday. Perryville feasted on plenty of teams below .500 but to beat a successful squad spoke volumes to the legitimacy of their run.

"It's a big deal, I think for the first team we beat that has a winning record," Hahn said. "Last year, they struggled in tight situations, and you can just kind of see the growth from them, which is awesome."

Much like turning Delta into a district winner in 2020-21, Hahn has quickly turned the Pirates around in his first season. One big reason why is his strategy to sub entire units rather than lean on one or two players for an entire game.

"We do the five in, five out to keep them fresh," Hahn said.

Against Jefferson, Karston Schilli led the Pirates with 11 points, while playing the entire fourth quarter. The senior point guard also led the Pirates against St. Vincent with 18 points.

"Karston did a good job of not getting sped up when he didn't have to, so he'd pull it out with space," Hahn said. "He's quicker than anybody else on the floor, so if you guard a man way up at half court, he's gonna blow by you."

Having Schilli's speed at the point and the 3-point shooting abilities of Waylon Huber, who scored 18 points against the Dragons, and Jake Cissell, who holds the school record, work perfectly with the system Hahn has implemented in Perryville.

The Pirates run the "Grinnell System", an innovation of David Arseneault, who coached the Division III Grinnell Pioneers from 1989-2018. The system relies on shooting 3-pointers, applying constant pressure with a full-court press and substituting players frequently to compensate for such defensive effort.

This system works because of the buy-in from the seniors, who certainly made an impact on Friday’s game. Evan Hayden scored 11 points with two key baskets from the three-point line in the second half. Carter Blechle scored all of his nine points in the second quarter including a slam dunk that turned the momentum their way. Aiden Wendell led the Pirates from the charity stripe, as the team made 20-of-25 free throws to win by 21.

“As a new coach coming a program that hasn’t had a lot of success, your seniors can make or break how quickly you transition into something new,” Hahn said. “This group since day one has been super open to everything. I think they just wanted to win. They wanted to go out with a different story than what has been in the first three years. So they’re a phenomenal group of kids. You couldn’t ask for a better single group to get to coach in the first year.”

This is not the first place Hahn has tried this system. He originally picked it up while coaching the girls basketball team at Holcomb. However, the system didn't fit with the Hornets and it led to his ouster.

"Everybody handed it and I got fired," Hahn said. "Then I just kind of kept it in my back pocket."

While he instantly found success at Delta, the "Grinnell System" wasn't a feature until he returned to Perryville.

"It's a system that people do not like," Hahn said. "You see five in, five out, and people hate it because it's different. So it's nice to win and kind of prove people wrong that talk about it in a negative light. I think my kids like it, and I think they're getting better, and that's all that really matters."

Implementing that system, especially the subbing aspect of it, came out of necessity. Perryville started the season losing six of its first eight games, entering the Chester Tournament 2-6 and looking like the same lowly Pirate squad that has won only 16 games in the past five seasons combined.

Since the Chester Tournament (Jan. 14), the Pirates have gone 8-3, including their second four-game winning streak of the season.

"I wasn't happy with our effort. So I just figured — we got two groups that work well together, I can keep us fresh, it's kind of forced us to play hard," Hahn said. "I think they get some continuity with each other. We were doing two or three subs at a time early on, and you could tell guys just weren't really flowing with each other. So I think you built some camaraderie with your group."

The Pirates will face all of their conference opponents at home throughout the final month of the regular season. Their win over DeSoto sets the Pirates up for the rest of the conference stretch.

“It just gives our kids a little bit of confidence,” Hahn said. “Conference games are a really good atmosphere. They’re kind of a bigger deal than non-conference, and like the other three teams that we’re about to play in the conference, DeSoto does a good job of playing physical.

Perryville returns to the court on Monday, Feb. 10, to tangle with the Tigers of Festus. Windsor (Feb. 18), Hillsboro (Feb. 21), and Festus are a combined 25-21 so far this season.

“The others ones are a little older, so they’re tough,” Hahn said. “We’re gonna have to really step our game up. We got to get tougher on both ends of the floor, be more efficient offensively and got to play harder defensively to have a shot against them.”