As Chester celebrates again, you wonder: Will it ever happen again for us?

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FROM KEITH GROLLER

Just finished watching Chester throttle Lower Merion to win the PIAA 4A championship; the mighty Clippers' second state title in a row and an amazing eighth crown -- all since 1983.

Not surprised that they won. I've been calling this PIAA 4A tourney the "Chester Invitational" for weeks.

This might go down as the best Chester team ever and maybe one of the best teams the state has ever seen.

I imagine Emmaus can feel pretty good about what happened tonight since the Green Hornets actually beat Chester in the Stellar tournament last summer, although the Clippers were not at full strength and summer basketball is not the same as the winter.

But with the season now over and the dominance in this state clearly, undoubtedly in the southeast corner where Philadelphia and suburban Philly celebrated six state titles this weekend, the question comes to mind: Will we ever win another boys state title again? In any classification?

I recently spent several hours with members of the 1982 Whitehall state champs. It was all for a feature story to run in Sunday's newspaper.

I enjoyed re-living that magical ride for that team, and of all things that were said that night, one thing resonated the most. It was Karl Heydt's comment that it "took a perfect storm" for Whitehall to do it.

Great team, great coaching, great support, and a few breaks along the way. That's what it took 30 years ago.

With all of the charter schools and the Philadelphia programs now in the mix, it may take the perfect storm and then a hurricane or two for us to get more gold.

Scott Coval, the DeSales coach who gets around and sees a lot of basketball around the state, said he thinks it can, and will happen to another Lehigh Valley team someday.

"The players are too good, the coaching is too good for it not to happen," Coval said. "You need talent and you need to be playing well. and then you need the matchups to fall your way. There's no question that we got some matchups that were favorable to us."

Coval and the rest of the guys now have a better appreciation of the magnitude of their accomplishment of 30 years ago.

"It's really amazing to look back on it now and realize how special it all was, and how lucky we were because so few people get to experience what we experienced," Coval said. "Not only do few people win it, but so few even get there. I really hope it will happen for somebody again. I want them to experience everything we did."