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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Where Are They Now – Rodney Perry
Western Arkansas, AR
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From coaching at small high schools to the Division I college level, former Northside basketball player Rodney Perry approaches the task the same way with patience and leadership.
Perry played at Northside from 1986-1988, and in 1988 led the Grizzlies to the Final Four of their classification. After Northside, he played at Fort Smith’s Westark Community College (now University of Arkansas at Fort Smith) for two years before finishing his college basketball career at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University) in Springfield, MO. During all those stops, he was the point guard, and all the teams had successful seasons with Perry at the helm.
Greenwood native Doc Sadler, who was an assistant at Westark during Perry’s time, then later was head coach and now is the head coach at Nebraska, remembers why the teams on which Perry played were successful.
“Rodney was very knowledgeable and understood the game,” Sadler said. “Even when he was playing he coached a league basketball team. More than anything, he tried to learn the game.”
Perry remembers his basketball career starting about the 6th grade at the Fort Smith Boys Club. The first game he played in he scored 31 points, and he was motivated because his aunt said she would give him a dollar for every point scored.
“I was always the point guard because of my leadership,” Perry said. “Every team I played on, I was the captain.”
Also a football player, Perry decided to concentrate on basketball his sophomore year. During his tenure, Arkansas had a Final Four championship system for each class. The Grizzlies made it Perry’s senior year where they lost in the semifinals. But, it just wasn’t his leadership and point guard play that got the Grizzlies that far. Springdale Har-Ber coach Eric Burnett played two years with Perry at Northside.
“Rodney was a really, really good defensive player,” Burnett said. “He was so skinny and quick and was intimidating with his defense. With his jumping ability, he smothered and frustrated opponents.”
The two years Perry was at Westark, the Lions were one of the top teams in the country. In Perry’s first year at Southwest Missouri State, the Bears advanced to the NCAA tournament with a 23-8 record and won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. His senior year, they were 20-11 and reached the semifinals of the MVC tournament and the quarterfinals of the NIT tournament. His senior year he averaged 6.1 points and had 42 steals and 60 assists.
However, Perry has made his mark as basketball coach/teacher at all different levels of play. His coaching career began when he was 14 at the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club. In that same year, he coached a football team and a basketball team to undefeated seasons. During the summers of his two years at SMSU, he came back to Fort Smith and along with Burnett coached an AAU team that was fifth in the nationals in 1992. Right after finishing at SMSU, he took over the Springfield Rockets AAU group and expanded it from one team to several teams of kids ranging from the age of kindergarten to high school. He guided three teams to National titles and five to top 10 finishes.
Anthony Perry, a cousin of Rodney’s, played at Northside from 1992-1994 and on the Fort Smith AAU team, then at University of Missouri-Kansas City and is now head basketball coach at Kansas City’s Parkhill South, understands why Perry is so successful.
“He understands how to reach every player,” Anthony said. “The thing I’ve learned from him and try to incorporate into my own coaching is he is so patient. He is not a rah-rah guy, but when you do something wrong, he’ll get your attention and correct it.”
Perry has several mentors, but his best advice came from former Arkansas Razorback coach Nolan Richardson. At all of Perry’s coaching stops, he always uses the same teaching model.
“Coach Richardson told me that coaching is a business,” Perry said. “There are three things you have to do—communicate, motivate and teach.”
1n 1994, Perry began his first tour as a high school coach when he was the freshman coach at Willard, MO. In 1996, he moved to Springfield Central High School as the junior varsity coach for three years. After that, he ran Southwest Sports in Nixa, MO, a facility dedicated to basketball where he ran clinics, leagues and camps. In 2001, he had his first stint at a small school as he coached at Purdy, MO, a school with 208 students. However, the Eagles had their best season in 10 years under Perry. After that he was an assistant coach at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, a Division II college.
In 2003, Perry embarked on his greatest stint. He was an assistant coach at Duquesne, a Division I College in Pittsburgh, PA. Perry worked under Danny Nee, who is the winningest coach at Nebraska. They were there until 2006 when Nee resigned. Then Perry did the small school thing again for a year coaching at Miller, MO, a school with 300 students. After that, Perry was at Western Illinois for one year.
Now, he is in Kansas City and the managing director of the basketball section of 68 Inside Sports, a facility started by former Kansas City Chief Willie Shields. The facilities slogan is where athletes train, and it has areas for baseball, football, swimming, racquetball, etc. and even has a sports medical clinic.
Regardless of where Perry is or what he is doing, he is always doing something with basketball and teaching kids.
“Basketball taught me a lot,” he said. “How to be disciplined, how to follow a game plan, how to work as a team and how to be a leader and teach people. It has taken me places I would never be able to go. Most of all, it taught me how to bounce back after defeats and not to get too high when things are going well and not to get too low when they aren’t.”
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