diff --git a/context/Containerfile b/context/Containerfile
index 3838ac9..d1b1fdf 100644
--- a/context/Containerfile
+++ b/context/Containerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-ARG EE_BASE_IMAGE="quay.io/ansible/ansible-runner:stable-2.11-latest"
+ARG EE_BASE_IMAGE="quay.io/centos/centos:stream9"
 ARG PYCMD="/usr/bin/python3"
 ARG PKGMGR_PRESERVE_CACHE=""
 ARG ANSIBLE_GALAXY_CLI_COLLECTION_OPTS="--pre"
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ ARG ANSIBLE_GALAXY_CLI_ROLE_OPTS
 ARG ANSIBLE_INSTALL_REFS
 ARG PKGMGR
 
+RUN /usr/bin/python3 -m ensurepip
+RUN /usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
 RUN $PYCMD -m ensurepip
 RUN $PYCMD -m pip install --no-cache-dir $ANSIBLE_INSTALL_REFS
 COPY _build/scripts/ /output/scripts/
diff --git a/execution-environment.yml b/execution-environment.yml
index 7b42f9b..d25e43f 100644
--- a/execution-environment.yml
+++ b/execution-environment.yml
@@ -29,12 +29,15 @@ dependencies:
 
 images:
   base_image:
-    name: quay.io/ansible/ansible-runner:stable-2.11-latest
+    name: quay.io/centos/centos:stream9
 
 additional_build_files:
     - src: ansible.cfg
       dest: configs
 additional_build_steps:
+  prepend_base: 
+   - RUN /usr/bin/python3 -m ensurepip
+   - RUN /usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
   # prepend_galaxy: |
   #   RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools ansible ansible-runner
   prepend_galaxy: