After a year of personal milestones by its head coach in 2016-17, the Chester boys basketball team looks to take another step forward toward winning its first regional title since 2013.
Coach Brad Norman became the program's all-time winngingest coach last season, picking up his 100th win on the Yellow Jacket bench in the process. He is 105-69 at Chester entering the 2017-18 season, after leading the Yellow Jackets to a 20-win season for the second straight year last year.
Chester's varsity roster features 12 players, including five seniors in Jake Haberberger (6-0, guard), Clay Herrell (6-3, forward), Josh Haberberger (5-11, guard), David Ashby (6-1, guard) and Nick Heffernan (5-11, guard).
They are supplemented by a strong junior class that went 15-1 at the JV level last season as sophomores. The lone loss was to Black Diamond Conference rival Goreville.
"I just think we have, legitimately, eight guys who could start," Norman said. "Any of those eight guys could start and it may be matchups. Maybe we would just be playing the matchup, so we'll see."
Chester also got a key acquisition when 6-foot-4 Keith Kiner III transferred over from Sparta and the junior joins 6-foot-4 sophomore Ian Reith as two imposing presences under the basket.
Kiner should also help the Yellow Jackets replace some of the athleticism they lost with the graduation of Savion Smith, who is now playing ball at Blackburn College.
"He's going to play a little bit different game than Savion," Norman said of Kiner. "Keith's going to have some guys with him who can really shoot the ball and I'm hoping he'll be able to play well with those guys.
"He's done a real good job early as far as showing up on time and putting in work."
The Haberberger twins enter their second full year as starters. Jake will handle the point guard duties, while Josh will be a shooting guard.
"They both started at the varsity level last year as juniors," Norman said. "They played some spot minutes their sophomore years, so we're going to look for them to carry a heavy load as far as guard play goes."
Last year, Josh missed much of the conference season recovering from a blood clot on his spinal column. After some lingering effects during cross country, it appears the issue is finally behind him.
"We've had no issues with it," Norman said. "He was having some issues in cross country, some lower back pain with long distance running, so he stepped down from cross country halfway through the year."
One of the targets for a breakout year could be Drake Bollman, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, who has added muscle in the offseason.
"Drake had a really good offseason," Norman said. "He's put on a little bit of weight, a little bit of muscle and he's improved his ball-handling skills."
Norman also highlighted Nick Heffernan, Colin Wingerter and Jake Cushman as players to watch this season.
"He's as tough as they come," Norman said of Cushman. "His brother, Link, is probably the best sixth man I've had here at Chester and I think Cush is going to give us a lot of the backup point guard role.
"He's the type of guy who can come in and do it all."
Defensively, Norman expects good things out of the Yellow Jackets this season.
"We're not going to be pressing a whole lot," he said. "We're not going to run-and-gun a whole lot, but we'll probably be as fast or faster than the team we had last year."
Schedule-wise, Chester begins the season on Tuesday, November 28, at 5 p.m. against North Tech at Trico High School as part of the new, combined Murphysboro/Trico basketball tournament.
Trico, Red Bud, Sparta, Steeleville and Harrisburg are in the Trico Pool, while Chester, Murphysboro, North Tech, Lovejoy and Roosevelt are in the Murphysboro Pool.
What's being referred to as "Showdown Saturday" will take place on Dec. 2, when the two pools play each other in Murphysboro to determine winners.
"Hopefully, we can compete with Murphysboro, I think they'll be as good as anybody in the tournament," Norman said. "If we can compete with them, that will say a lot about where we're at."
On the non-conference part of its schedule, Chester will play Waterloo (Dec. 12), Anna-Jonesboro (Dec. 19) and Gibault Catholic (Jan. 26). The Yellow Jackets' home opener will be Friday, December 8, against Sesser-Valier.
The team's BDC opener will take place two nights earlier against Vienna.
"I'm excited that I have to try and figure out who we're going to start first," Norman said. "There's three other guys who aren't going to start who are going to be biting at the ankles wanting to get out on the floor."
• Roster
Seniors - #0 Jake Haberberger (6-0, guard); #3 Clay Herrell (6-3, forward); #4 Josh Haberberger (5-11, guard); #12 David Ashby (6-1, guard); #22 Nick Heffernan (5-11, guard).
Juniors - #13 Jake Cushman (6-0, guard); #15 Drake Bollman (6-3, forward); #40 Colin Wingerter (6-0, guard); #45 Keith Kiner III (6-4, forward).
Sophomores - #20 Ethan Bert (5-11, guard); #32 Ian Reith (6-4, forward); #55 Caleb Nolan (6-3, forward).
