Semoball

Passion for the pitch: The city of Perryville has become a soccer haven

The Bank of Missouri Soccer Complex has played a pivotal role in the growth of soccer in the city of Perryville since its construction in the late 1990s.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

Over the course of the past three or so decades, a wave of enthusiasm for the sport of soccer has slowly overtaken the small city of Perryville.

Longtime Perryville High School boy’s and girl’s soccer coach Jerry Fulton recalls the days of youth leagues and tournaments being played on the “not level, up and downhill” pitches at the town’s City Park, but the town took its love for the sport to another level two decades ago when the Bank of Missouri Soccer Complex was constructed.

“We had a very successful youth program before the (Soccer Complex) was built,” Fulton said. “But being able to get everybody in one spot, and having it centrally-located like that, and the Perryville Optimists built a first-class facility with the help of the City.”

All of the efforts of many people through the years were exhibited last month when over 100 young kids gathered for the annual Perryville Soccer Summer Camp. Helping guide the next generation of soccer enthusiasts were nearly 20 Perryville High School and St. Vincent High School soccer players serving as instructors, as well as Fulton directing it.

“The kids are able to start at a young age,” Fulton explained how a love of the sport begins. “That definitely goes through the league, which gets them going.”

Kids in Perryville are capable of learning soccer skills before they can even enroll in kindergarten, according to Fulton.

“When I first started,” Fulton explained, “it was first grade when they started. Now they have gotten (the leagues) into preschool.”

The benefits of that early start, and the magnificent 35-acre facility, which has 10 pitches, have shown through the years at both Perryville and St. Vincent.

The schools have three varsity squads (St. Vincent does not have a boy’s program), which have advanced to a combined 10 MSHSAA Final Fours, with four state championships.

“Credit goes to the parents, who get into soccer,” Fulton explained. “They take kids to the next level.”

Fulton said several Pirate (Perryville) and Indian (St. Vincent) athletes venture to St. Louis in the off seasons to train and compete against the best players in Missouri.

“You get a taste of that,” Fulton said, “and it has just escalated from that.”

Like his Perryville counterpart, St. Vincent girl’s coach Todd Strattman, who played soccer recreationally until he was 36 years old, agreed that the Optimist Soccer League has a direct correlation to the success of the high school programs.

“There is something in the water, I guess,” Strattman joked about what makes Perryville special as it relates to soccer. “There are a lot of dedicated parents and a lot of dedicated people.”

Also, like Fulton, Strattman got his coaching start in the youth league before taking over the Indian program last spring. He served on the Optimist League Board “for about 10 years.”

“Once we started growing,” Strattman said of the Soccer Complex and youth league, “we got more people involved and more people started showing up.”

This past May, the Soccer Complex hosted a 93-team tournament, of which 12 were from Perryville.

“We have dedicated parents and dedicated kids,” Strattman said.

Fulton’s Pirate teams are coming off stunning 2021-22 seasons.

His boy’s team finished second in the MSHSAA Class 2 State Finals and won 23 of its 27 games, while his girl’s team finished fourth in Class 2.

“We are very excited,” Fulton said of the coming seasons. “We only had one senior on the girl’s team, so hopefully, that bodes well for next year.”

The Pirate girl’s trip to the Final Four this summer was a first for the program, while the Pirate boy’s won the Class 2 state championship in 2014 and finished second in 2015.

St. Vincent is a fixture at the MSHSAA Class 1 State Finals.

The Indians won state titles in 2009, 2017, and 2018, while finishing second twice (2011 and 2019) and third in 2010.

This past season, St. Vincent was moved up to Class 3 and still advanced to the District 1 championship game before falling to Notre Dame (St. Louis).

St. Vincent only won two of its initial 10 matches but closed the season with 11 victories in its final 14 contests.

“We started talking and playing as a team,” Strattman said of the difference. “The first games, the freshmen hadn’t played with us, and we were trying to mix everyone together, trying to get everybody in the right position.

“Once we got it, we got it.”

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