Lady Pirates build on future success in Perez era

When Polson Lady Pirates coach Juan Perez first took over the program, he knew his attempt at a reclamation project wouldn’t happen overnight but his team made significant strides as they concluded their season with back-to-back District losses to Libby and Ronan.

Perez knows his team still has some work to do in order to become one of the state’s top-tier girl’s basketball programs but his team has made significant strides towards changing the culture of Lady Pirate basketball in his first season as a head coach.

“I feel grateful to the girls that they’ve been through a few different coaches but they’ve really worked hard and embraced what I was trying to do,” Prez said. “I am very grateful for them and their effort in trying to help change and improve the program.”

Perez said he felt he saw significant improvement in the Lady Pirates’ program as they progressed from the beginning of the season to the end of their season.

“I saw improvement but unfortunately on offense, we continued to struggle quite a bit as we continued to get better defensively,” Perez said. “We got stronger and tougher to the point teams couldn’t do whatever they felt like they wanted to do against us on offense. Again, I felt the girls continued to grow throughout the season and they were able to get a little smarter on the court. They could recognize the opportunity and be able to take advantage of it. I am excited to see what comes out of Lady Pirate basketball as we move towards the future.”

When Perez first took over the Salish Kootenai College basketball program 15 years ago, he eventually turned the college into a team that won five National AIHEC Championships. He admits to seeing some similarities in attempting to turn Lady Pirate basketball into a perennial powerhouse.

“There are certainly some similarities for me as a coach when I first started coaching at SKC,” Perez said. “Coaching at SKC was my first-ever coaching job and this is my first-ever coaching job coaching high school girls. I kind of feel fortunate that I had my SKC experience when helping form a philosophy. In high school, you want to see the players do well on and off the court. Coaching the game of high school girls basketball is the same in basketball-related ways. I was very fortunate to have my coach Terry Souhrada, who was a huge help in helping me make the transition from college to high school.”

Perez said he is always challenging his players and himself as a coach. This year in his new role as a Lady Pirates head basketball coach, he embraced the his new role.

“As a coach, you should always be challenging yourself,” Perez said. “Taking on the new role of a high school coach was definitely a challenge for me in my coaching career and the girls made this an enjoyable season. It has been great to be able to coach these girls not just about basketball but to try to instill a good work ethic and instill in them some good life lessons.”

As Perez moves forward and his team continues to build towards a new tradition in what will be his second year starting in late 2018, he said he is “excited” about the Lady Pirates’ future as he hopes to get them focusing on basketball during the summer.

“I am excited to see what we can build during the summer and how it prepares us for next season,” Perez said. “I want to establish a routine in the summer so that the girls know what I expect. I also want them to enjoy their summer but I want them to understand that we aren’t going to get better during the season unless we put some work in during the summer. We have to work hard in the off season. We have to work on a lot of individual skill stuff and work on positioning skills so when the season starts, we are able to put all of that work together. The work we put into the summer will be big for us.”