City of Basketball Love

Matt Chandik (@MChandik26)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2017-18 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed so far can be found here.)

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Ten years later, Keith Taylor doesn’t really try avoid it. Far from it, actually.

It doesn’t take long to realize that Taylor, a Clippers alum part of the Chester 1,000-point club, was thoroughly disappointed when Larry Yarbray was chosen over him to replace the late Fred Pickett as the Clippers’ coach.

While that snub still irks him, it’s ancient history now that Taylor is succeeding Yarbray.

“It’s awesome,” Taylor said. “I’ve been waiting for it for a long time now. It’s been a minute since I’ve last been there. You’re thinking that you’re going to get the job and it doesn’t turn out and it does something to you, but you just have to realize that God has a plan.”

Yarbray wasn’t exactly chopped liver, twice leading Chester to state championships and winning more than 80 percent of his games in nine seasons. When it came time to find someone new, though, Chester didn’t have to go too far.

“I have a young team, and we’re trying to reprogram them to do things the way we want them done,” Taylor said. “It’s hard some days, because they’re high school boys and you’re expecting them to think one way and they’re thinking the other.”

Even with that, Taylor’s expectations are crystal clear for his team, and step one is rediscovering the identity that made Chester one of the most feared programs in the state for so long. It’s not an Xs and Os issue, either. It’s a compete level thing.

“In the past, when you spoke of Chester, the first thing that came up was, ‘they play a hell of a defense. They’re so tough on defense,’” Taylor said. “That was the identity. You knew Chester would be up in your face, win or lose, and it was going to be a rough outing. It’s 94 feet of man-to-man defense. We’re trying to get back to it, and we absolutely want to be known as a hard-nosed team.”

Taylor does some have talent to work with, including a handful of players that helped Chester amass a 22-6 mark a year ago that ended with a trip to the PIAA 5A quarterfinals. To most programs, a 20-win campaign and a couple of state tournament wins is a banner year. For the Clippers, it means there’s work to be done.

“Winning a state championship motivates us a lot because we haven’t won it in so many years (2011-12) and we want to win one just to see what the feeling is like,” junior point guard Michael Smith said. “It would be a big deal to us.”

It’s always a great thing to have a returning starter at the point, and it’s a luxury that Taylor will enjoy in his rookie campaign. Smith is a quick, aggressive and savvy floor general who will be tasked with not only upping his game, but elevating the play of those around him.

“It’s great having Coach Keith back, especially since he was such a great player in his time,” Smith said. “He’s got so much knowledge and he’s going to prepare us and put us in the right positions to win. The styles are (mostly) the same and we had a couple mistakes on defense last year, stuff we needed to fix, but Coach Keith is working on that. He’s expecting me to step up and be a leader of the team.”

Rahmaad DeJarnette, whose brother, Rashan, was on the last Clippers team to win states, is another returning starter. A 6-3 junior guard/forward, DeJarnette is a high-energy player who’s always around the ball and uses his long arms to give offenses problems. Brian Randolph came on strong at the end of last season, and Taylor loves his on-ball defense and offensive flair.

“Brian guarded the best player on the other team in every game last year, and he’s going to do that again this year,” Taylor said. “Those three saw good minutes last year and we’re leaning on them to lead the young guys who haven’t played varsity before.”

Senior Timothy Johnston, junior Rahnel Sparks and senior Zhaid Ferguson, all of whom hover around 6-2 or 6-3, will man the front court. There’s not a ton of height for the Clippers, but it’s a group that work hard every night and make the little plays that help teams be successful. Zahmir Carroll, a 6-4 sophomore transfer from Neumann-Goretti, figures to earn some minutes, too, especially if he can continually hit his mid-range shots.

The expectations are sky-high, as always, and that will never change. It’s part of what makes Chester one of the nation’s best basketball communities, the mood of the city almost always directly correlating to the result of the last Clippers game. Taylor isn’t predicting anything other than hard work and a return to the blueprint that made the Clippers so good.

“As always, we want to win, but we also want them to learn the game of basketball,” Taylor said. “We’re going to be a tough out. We’re going to win some and lose some, but there’s no doubt about it: no one’s going to want to play us.”

Just like it used to be.

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