‘Dream come true’ as Pilots alumni makes pro debut

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This article was published 24/04/2023 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kendall Perpall has turned a successful college basketball career into a role with a professional team.

Perpall made his professional debut for the Moncton Motion of the Eastern Canadian Basketball League (ECBL). The league runs until the end of June, and features teams from across the Maritimes.

“It’s a dream come true,” Perpall said.

“I played semi-(pro) basketball a year or two ago, but this is another level. This is where I want to be at.”

Perpall added that everything from the competition he faces, to the arenas the team play in are up several levels compared to previous basketball stops.

“It’s just all put together so well,” he said.

Perpall played with Providence Pilots until 2019. The combo guard is working on finding a defined role within the Motion, with his season was derailed by illness after the opening games.

“I love to score, and I can score at all three levels, but I can facilitate too,” Perpall said, describing his game.

“I will run the offense first, but if I find my shot early, and get going I’m going to be looking to score.”

Perpall added Moncton is running a “Princeton style,” offence, a system which emphasizes off-ball movement, constant picks and less defined positions.

“After the first game, I did a lot of facilitating, and the coach told me, ‘we need another scorer, we need another shooter,’” Perpall said.

“I need to shoot more, so I’m going to try and balance that.”

The Motion are attempting to recapture the ‘magic’ of a previous team which played in the National Basketball League of Canada. The Moncton Magic left the NBLC in August of 2021. The Magic had won the NBLC championship in 2019, the final year before the COVID-19 pandemic shut them down.

“Everyone came out to our home opener expecting to see the same thing,” Perpall said.

“Hopefully we can bring the first championship here.”

Perpall grew up in Oklahoma, but has made the Steinbach area his home, helping coach youth basketball teams in the area.

“Steinbach has been my community,” he said, adding his wife grew up in the region.

The ECBL features a 26 game regular season, with games broadcast on YouTube.