Delcohoops.com

By Matthew DeGeorge

There’s quiet in an empty high school gym, in the era of COVID-19. And then there’s the deafening silence of the Fred Pickett Gymnasium.

With half the stands folded up Thursday night, with the DJed squeals of Cardi B reverberating off the brick corners, with the Chester step team’s usually show-stopping routine answered only with their own echoes, the lack of spectators hits home at Chester High more than most. To know the electricity of the Clip Joint in normal times is to miss it profoundly now.

So it was Thursday, with 71 souls Iinattendance – players, coaches, refs and janitors included – as Chester and Penn Wood played a boys basketball game that should’ve drawn out a community. It’s one thing to lament the lost ambience of a Central League gym on a weekday afternoon. It’s another to reacquaint your mind to the palpable eeriness of a sedate Chester High, from what once would’ve been taken for granted as a rocking crowd replaced by yawning quiet.

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By Dave Burman

By Pete Bannan

Give me a K!

Chester Cheerleaders called out in support of their own Thursday evening during the Penn Wood vs. Chester game as they congratulated Coach Karen Miah on her retirement from State Farm Insurance after 42 years of service. Miah has led the cheerleaders for 26 years, as well as graduating from Chester High in 1977.

The Chester Cheerleaders with their distinctive saddle shoes and top notch cheers are shining stars even during a pandemic when few people have the chance to see them in person.

“We’ve always been the best and we work hard to be the best,” said Miah. “COVID doesn’t stop us, we just keep moving. They keep me going, that’s the blessing of it.”

In 2017, Miah was inducted into the Chester High School Hall of Fame, a first for the school.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

It isn’t often that a player can miss seven straight shots in the middle of a game and still end up with 30 points.

Then again, Karell Watkins isn’t the kind of player you find very often. By the time the Chester senior and reigning Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year had ground down Penn Wood’s attempt at low-post defense Thursday night, those mid-game misses were long in the past.

Watkins finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds as the Clippers cruised to a 74-56 Del Val League victory.

“Just knowing me, I know me, if I miss a couple of buckets, I don’t dwell on it,” Watkins said. “I put it in the past and I just keep pushing. That’s just the mindset I have.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

When you start three sophomores, as Radnor’s boys basketball team does, the question of who gets the ball in crunch time doesn’t always follow conventional wisdom.

Yes, Radnor’s eyes go first to Lew Robinson, the senior guard who has starred in the lineup since his long-ago sophomore season. But when defenses shift to negate Robinson, and Radnor searches for volunteers, the spotlight often falls on a youngster.

In Jackson Hicke, the youngest of the young, Radnor found a willing – and hot – hand Tuesday night.

Hicke scored 20 points, including four in overtime, and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Radnor to a 47-42 win at Springfield’s brand-new gym.

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