New Edward Little High School girls basketball coach Frank Perry meets with players who will be seniors on next season’s team earlier this month at the school in Auburn. From left are, Perry, Leah Britting, Favour Monday, Layla Facchiano, Rachel Penny and Violet Vincent. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Frank Perry has an extensive basketball background. But one thing he hasn’t done is coach high school basketball, and that’s what pushed him to apply for the open position with the Edward Little girls basketball program.

“It has always been something in the back of the mind, of coaching a high school team and how I would do as a coach in the high school ranks,” Perry, who was hired last month to lead the Red Eddies, said. “I have coached for years running the Maine Basketball Club at different levels — including little kids to right up to the higher levels, to the kids who would go on and play in college.”

Perry started the Maine Basketball Club before selling it to Kristina Blais — whom he will be replacing at Edward Little — in 2021.

Perry is familiar with the Red Eddies girls program, beyond the players he worked with through MBC. His daughter, Jade Perry, was a key member of Edward Little’s Class AA state championship team in 2018, and he has kept an eye on the program since she graduated.

Edward Little’s athletic director, Todd Sampson, was impressed with a few things during his interviews with Frank Perry.

“Two things for me: commitment to fundamentals, and he has an analytic mind, and he really dug into our stats over the last several years,” Sampson said. “He really had some good ideas on how we could potentially make up a couple of points or get a couple of more points that will be the decision maker if we win the game.”

Edward Little is coming off a 6-13 season that ended with a loss to Lewiston in the Class AA North quarterfinals.

One of the stats Perry brought up is free throws. He found that opponents were hitting their free throws at a 58% clip while Edward Little was at 59%. While the percentages are similar, opponents were getting fouled more and getting more opportunities at the charity stripe.

“We fouled a lot more to the point our opponents took a considerable amount of more foul shots,” Perry said. “While the percentage was the same, the number of made foul shots was considerably more than us.”

Working on the team’s free throws is something that needs to be improved, Perry added.

Sampson said Perry’s time with the Maine Basketball Club will come in handy.

“I think that’s what Frank loves,” Sampson said. “He’s big into the fundamentals, the shooting, the workouts, the individual workouts, and when he created the Maine Basketball Club — that was his vision, to give kids an opportunity to work on those fundamentals.”

Perry points out that stats aren’t everything, but they do paint a picture.

“It can’t be all just stats,” Perry said. “There are things happening on the floor as well.”

Perry met with the Edward Little players who will be seniors in the 2024-25 season earlier this month to discuss the plan for the upcoming summer training program.

“Most of our conversation was about the summer, and prepping and how important it is the seniors lead by example to keep our culture growing in the right direction,” Perry said. “They are all very busy. Some of them have jobs and do other sports — I am a fan of multi-sports (athletes). I understand I won’t get them all the time when I want them in the summertime, as far as practices and things. I would like them to show up, so they can set a very good example for the younger players coming up to show this is how we do things at Edward Little.”

While Perry didn’t talk directly about expectations for the upcoming season with the girls on Monday, he’s hoping for a winning record.

Perry hopes the players soak up some of his knowledge and passion for basketball.

“I watch a lot of basketball on TV, and it has always been a love and passion of mine,” Perry said. “It’s going to be fun to share that and, hopefully, it relates to the kids. I do have a passion, and I want them to do well to help them get to their goals.”