Chester’s Michael Smith (left) playing a little ‘b-ball’ with Delcohoops.com play-by-play announcer, Dave Burman, this past summer. Photo by Brenda Burman.
By Matthew DeGeorge
There are myriad ways to qualify how impressive the 1,000-point club at Chester High School is. Michael Smith’s preferred method highlighted the last person to enter the pantheon before Thursday night.
With 21 points, Smith joined that elite brotherhood, despite the Clippers falling in the District 1 Class 5A fifth-place game, 67-60 at Norristown.
“It’s a real big accomplishment because there’s a lot of people that made it, but there hasn’t been a lot of people that made it since Rondae,” Smith said. “So it’s a big accomplishment for me because I’m that next one.”
Point of fact: Smith is the first Clipper to score 1,000 points since Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a 2013 grad, two-time Daily Times Player of the Year and a current Brooklyn Net. Both Mahir Johnson and Tyrell Sturdivant in 2014 scored their 1,000th points with Chester, but most of their scoring came at high schools in Delaware. Smith is the next one after an all-everything legend to do it, which makes him the answer to a trivia question in living rooms all over Chester for decades.
The point guard, an All-Delco last year, stalled slightly as he neared the mark. He scored eight points in the first nine minutes but struggled to hit shots as the milestone neared. The Clippers derailed with him.