STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — They knew what was off in the distance, sitting right there on the March horizon on the first day of practice. They also knew that it was a taboo subject to broach openly.
So they all harbored the same thought, this idea they would do something no other Chester team did before them. Something magical that their tiny city just outside Philadelphia can firmly embrace for a long time.
Erikk Wright, Chester
File photo by Paul Burdick
Little did any of the members of the
Chester (Pa.) basketball team realize they would have to
survive a school district bankruptcy scare to achieve it.
But on Saturday night, before a boisterous, packed crowd at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center, Chester put the exclamation point on an incredible year, beating Lower Merion with a resounding 59-33 victory to win the Clippers' second-straight PIAA Class AAAA state championship.
What's more is Chester ended its season 32-0 and extended its winning streak to 58-straight games entering next season, which is the second-longest streak in the nation behind the 67-game streak currently held by St. Anthony's (Jersey City, N.J.).
The Clippers, who are ranked No. 5 in the
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Boys Basketball Rankings, hold more Pennsylvania titles than any other large school in the state with an all-time high eight crowns (1983, 1989, 1994, 2000 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2012).
None has been more impressive, nor more resonating than this most recent championship. Chester has had some indelible teams in its history but none have gone undefeated. None have ever won two-straight state titles. Until now.
Rondae Jefferson led the way for the Clippers with 13 points, followed by
Darius Robinson's nine points and
Erikk Wright,
Shanier Cottman and
Richard Granberry each with seven points.
Chester's swarming defense was the difference. The Clippers held Lower Merion for 15 minutes, 39 seconds without scoring a basket, from late in the first quarter until nearly midway into the third quarter, breaking open what had been a close game. Every Aces possession was greeted with a phalanx of arms and legs, a maze Lower Merion couldn't solve.
Lower Merion was outrebounded 47-29 and 24-7 on the offensive boards. Chester may have shot 38.7 percent, but the Clippers got off 62 shots to Lower Merion's 37. After shooting 4-for-7 in the first quarter, the Aces were 7-for-30 the remainder of the game.
Winning the state championship was the easy part. It was the looming outlining issues that were the larger concerns during the season. An ominous cloud hung over the Chester program all season that could short-circuit what Clippers coach Larry Yarbray, and a band of committed assistants built: A bankrupt Chester Upland School District. In mid-January, the district needed a $3.2-million advance from the state to keep Chester Upland schools open until March.
Amid the swirling predicament, Yarbray steadied the Clipper ship with an unswerving hand. He and his staff knew the talk in Chester about the possibility that the high school could close, and they kept pounding home the same message to their players to keep focusing on their academics and basketball.
"With kids being kids, you give them too much, it overwhelms them; the only thing we did was stay positive and I didn't know what was going on with the school district, either," Yarbray said. "We wanted to focus on controlling the things we could control, and we still don't know what's going to happen next year. The school may close. We don't know. We know they have enough money to make it until June, and hopefully winning the state title is something that will convince the state that good things can come out of Chester."
Chester's ride included beating two 29-win teams (Lower Merion and Central Dauphin) by a combined 45 points in the state semifinals and finals. In the state title game, the Clippers stymied a Lower Merion offense that averaged 66 points a game into half that total. The Clippers' journey included beating two of the three other Pennsylvania state champions, Constitution (Class A) and Imhotep Charter (Class AA).
"Everyone involved got on this early in December, and once we started winning, we started getting the attitude that no one could beat us," Yarbray said. "We beat Constitution early on, which was supposed to be the best team in Philadelphia, and the mindset began building from then. We just became a cohesive unit. What I'll remember is that it's a special group, and when I say that, it's the personalities. All of these kids are from Chester and they grew up together, and have been playing together since they were 7, 8 years old. It's like one big family. These kids made a lot of sacrifices and you have to be a part of a family to do that. You come from Chester, you play for Chester, the bar was always set high here — and now we set it higher. It's triple the level now."
Jefferson, the 6-foot-7, 205-pound junior forward, is the returning star for the Clippers, along with 6-8
Richard Granberry. Most of Chester's team returns next year, making the Clippers the odds-on favorite to not only three-peat as state champions but vie for being possibly the country's best team beginning next year.
"I want to enjoy this year," Jefferson said, laughing. "It's been crazy. Getting to the state finals and not winning would have been like doing all of that for nothing. There were no doubts we would win. It was our goal this whole year. We just didn't talk a whole lot about it especially with the school district and everything going on. I'll be honest, it was hard blocking everything out. But coach Yarbray kept us going. We stayed humble and hungry. We didn't let anyone deny us from getting what we needed to get done. We can talk now about being the best team in Chester history and we haven't lost a game in two years. No other Chester team ever went undefeated and won consecutive state championships. We did."
It's a keepsake this special group will always share.
