A fresh start

It didn’t take long for Perryville’s administration to land a boys basketball coach.

After former Perryville coach Lenny Harris decided to take the head coaching job at Dover High earlier this summer, school officials went to work trying to find his replacement. Once they found out that Terry Smith, who resigned as Greenbrier girls basketball coach last spring after six years, was still looking for a coaching opportunity, the school board didn’t waste any time bringing him into the fold.

“It was just one of those things that kind of happens kind of quickly,” said Smith, who was hired July 10. “I’ve met all of the administrators, school board members and some teachers. I’ve also bumped into people in the community, and everybody has welcomed me with open arms. This is a blue-collar community, and they love their sports and their basketball. Keith Carter kind of stirred everybody up about basketball some years ago. Basketball is important to this community.”

Smith’s resignation at Greenbrier came as a surprise to some, but he felt it was time to move on. Before taking the head coaching job at Greenbrier, he spent two years as an assistant in Jessieville. Smith also had a six-year stint as an assistant at Greenbrier prior to that.

“I enjoyed my time at Greenbrier,” Smith said. “I enjoyed developing relations in the conference with people. I also enjoyed working with my assistants Larry Flake and Stephanie Newland. They were great friends, colleagues and loyal supporters. Greenbrier has a nice community, and I learned a lot in my time there.”

The preparation it took for the nightly grind in the 5A West is something that Smith will remember for the rest of his life. He’ll take some of those same philosophies on offense and defense to Perryville.

“It mainly depends on our personnel,” Smith said. “Most of our practice, probably 90 percent of the time, we’re going to work on our man-to-man defense. Now, in the game we may have to switch up and run a zone, but most of the time we’re going to run a solid man defense, with ball pressure and blocking out.”

On the offensive end, the returning players may like Smith’s approach.

“It won’t be much different from what we did at Greenbrier, but we’re going to push the ball up the floor and try to get an easy shot,” Smith said. “If we can’t get an open shot, then we’ll back it back up and run out of our motion or triangle offense. We’ll run a set play and see if we can’t get a shot.”

This will be Smith’s first time heading a boys basketball program, but he’s not backing down to the new challenge.

“Basketball is basketball,” Smith said. “The speed is different, obviously. But, the same principles applies to both girls and boys basketball. I don’t see it being that much of a difference. I’m going to approach it the same way.”

The Mustangs have nine seniors and several other returning players.

“Of course, a lot of these guys play football. Football is also big around here,” Smith said. “It looks like it’s going to be a solid class. Their big and athletic. Perryville’s football coach (Doug Corley) is legendary, and he told me that this group of guys are the hardest working group that he’s ever been around. So they are not afraid of work.”