Boys Basketball Preview: Despite talented opponents and transfer losses, Clippers carry on

CHESTER — The summer tour led Larenzo Jerkins through 11 states and twice as many opportunities to impress, so Chester High basketball coach Keith Taylor would brace for the inevitable.

There was Jerkins, his 6-5-and-developing junior, creating a mild stir with SK Elite on the AAU barn-storm. That, then, would be the cue for the recruiters to pounce.

Not college recruiters.

The other kind.

“High school coaches in the state,” Jerkins was saying, before a recent practice at 9th and Barclay. “A lot of them. They were trying to contact me. Schools like O’Hara, Archbishop Carroll. A lot of teams.”

Such has been the test Taylor has had to endure at Chester, which long has produced gifted players and tolerated desperate high school recruiters. It’s nothing new, and that transfer portal will not likely be buttoned shut any time soon.

All Taylor can do, then, is try to sell Chester’s dazzling basketball history and try to keep pace.

“It hasn’t changed much at all, because schools are still coming here and grabbing our kids,” Taylor said. “It is a challenge. But we will just have to go with whoever shows up here in the gym.”

And that would be the tale of the 2021-22 Clippers, ever determined to add to their stash of eight state championships, yet disappointed since 2012; players staying, players transferring in, and, of course, players transferring out.

The most significant transfer loss was honorable mention All-Delco guard Kyree Womack, who often dazzled as a freshman, then elected to attend Roman Catholic. The most significant re-recruit was Jerkins, who long has admired the Clippers’ tradition, spending much time at his grandmother’s Chester home throughout his life, though he originally was from Southwest Philadelphia.

Then, as proof that the portal flows both ways, honorable-mention All-Delco guard Terrence Cobb Jr. transferred from Springfield to Chester, where his father, Terrence Cobb was once a Chester teammate of Taylor, graduating in 1985.

“I moved here and I just loved the competitive drive here,” the younger Cobb said. “We definitely have a winning tradition, and this is my hometown. I just want to carry my family’s legacy. I am playing with some of my best friends. I just love it over here. I love the community. I love the atmosphere.

“My father said it is definitely a tough place to play. One day they will love you and the next day they will hate you. But he also told me when he played here, they were some of the best years of his life. I’m definitely excited. I have big shoes to fill. But I am definitely ready to play this year.

“I just want to make the community a better place, something positive. When people hear, ‘Chester,’ I want them to think positive.”

That’s the pitch Taylor can make to keep too many talents from straying. He can point to those state championship banners dangling from the ceiling, using them as proof that some programs promise success while others have spent generations doing it on the court.

Jerkins likely will be a popular target of the private schools next offseason. But while they can offer a different experience, the junior forward has reasons for wanting to finish his high school career at Chester.

“They’ve got a lot more to offer here,” he said. “So it wasn’t difficult at all for me to choose to stay. This just feels like home. Orange and black is just my thing now. The love what they give me here and how they treat me is just outstanding. And I really want to stay here for my next two years.”

That’s the nature of the game, and the challenge to the upperclassmen: Make the steady roster upheaval work while reminding the newcomers of their responsibility to maintain the winning tradition.

“It is,” said senior guard Isaiah Freeman, a returning honorable mention All-Delco. “They need to have somebody to look up to and follow, and I think I am one of those guys that they can learn a lot from on the basketball court. They know about what is expected here. These are guys who have been following Chester basketball their entire lives. So nothing has changed. We are still playing to full crowds. It’s nothing new.

“We’re going to come together and put on a show for the city.”

That is the central reason why Taylor remains unbothered by the newer system: Players will leave for what they believe are better opportunities, yet others will find their way to his program, which hasn’t had a bad last six decades itself.

“Does it hurt?” he said. “It does. It hurts our progress. But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We can’t cry over spilled milk. We just have to keep moving on.”