Chester head boys basketball coach Larry Yarbray's success has come at a time of unprecedented financial hardship for the Chester-Upland School District.
CHESTER ? Larry Yarbray had one dream and one obligation, never in that order. So before he would ever begin his career as a college basketball coach, he first would try to help kids. Two of them. That?s all. Just two.
?I had two brothers, one was 10 years younger than me, the other 10 years younger than him,? Yarbray, the basketball coach at Chester High was saying the other day, during a break in practice. ?My mother, Margo Yarbray, was a single mom. So you try to be around so you can be that male figure, somebody that the kids can talk to and just make sure that everybody is OK.?
His plan was to do that for a while, then become a volunteer assistant coach at the college level, most likely at his alma mater, Coppin State, and then to maneuver deeper into the industry. Too soon, though, he learned that plans can change ? quickly.
?My youngest brother, Jeremy, was murdered,? he said. ?It was in Dover, Delaware. He was 18 and he?d gotten caught up in doing the wrong things. He took the path where he didn?t want to go to school. He wanted to get into being a rapper or doing some other things, like listening to his peers. It was sad. He was struggling for ends to meet and struggling to have money in his pocket. He turned the wrong corner and he ended up getting caught up selling drugs. Some guy tried to rob him and shot him and killed him.?
It was just about then that Yarbray figured his calling was not necessarily to recruit basketball players to colleges, but to make certain they survived high school. So he returned to his hometown, Chester, and began working with the Clippers? basketball program, eventually succeeding Fred Pickett as the head coach. There, he has won. He has won games. He has won two state championships. He has won the satisfaction of helping many, many more than two young men toward life?s successes.
And since Yarbray, 42, did all of that in 2012, while not only coaching Chester to its only undefeated season but doing so as the very future of the school was being threatened, he has won Delaware County?s Sports Figure of the Year honor, as presented by the Daily Times sports department.
Based on the end-of-the-year Sports Illustrated model, the honor goes to that individual, entity or concept that best brought positive attention to Delaware County in the previous 365 days. Yarbray is the second Chester basketball coach to be so recognized since 2008, when Pickett earned the honor. Last year, the award went to the Philadelphia Union, for making a different, though vital, sports impact in Chester.
?Larry has taught our kids about the game and about hard work,? said Randy Leggette, the Chester athletic director. ?It?s something I?m proud to see.?
In Yarbray?s fourth season as their head coach, the Clippers went 32-0, ran a two-year winning streak to 58 games and won their second consecutive PIAA Class AAAA state championship with a 59-33 victory over Lower Merion. As impressive as the numbers, though, was the challenge. For amid that perfection, a program legend, former coach Alonzo Lewis, was accidentally struck by an automobile and killed while crossing a street. And as Chester was gaining national status, there was a threat to the school ? a threat that remains, as the Chester-Upland School District has come under state receivership.
To the players, that trap of finance and politics may mean little. But to their head coach, who had come to understand how suddenly anything can vanish, it would become a season-long point of emphasis. Continued...
?It helped us to be focused and not take things for granted,? Yarbray said. ?I truly believe that you can?t take anything for granted in life. It was a special season that we had last year. If we had lost focus and started focusing on what was going on with the school, then the kids might not really understand that there is the potential that the school may close and they might be on the last team to play at Chester High. I said, ?What do you want to be remembered as?? You?ve got to take that. And sometimes, you take it as a positive and you move forward with it. But the reality is, one day the school might close. I still put it at 50-50.
?It?s sad to say you are right back in that same situation this year. They gave the school to the state in receivership and hopefully they can come up with a plan that will work. And hopefully the people around here can support that plan to make it work. But you?ve got to come out and support your children. And I believe everything starts at home. You teach your kids at home. You follow them. You monitor them. You mentor them and you do what you are supposed to do, making sure they are doing their homework and following up on it. Then, they have a chance to be successful. If you don?t, then people are going to fall through the cracks. That?s when people make excuses. They put all the blame on the school. But it takes a whole community to raise a child.?
In Chester, it long has taken a city to raise one of the most enduring high school basketball programs in the nation, eight times the state champion with the talent and the expectations to make it nine in 2013. But Yarbray has taken that mission and has lived it, spending many of his weekends watching the youth programs in the city.
?I get to go see my future,? he said. ?I get to see the young kids who potentially are going to play for me one day. And you almost start building relationships then. All the kids in the Chester Biddy program are welcome to come to our games. We let them come through the doors. They go in the locker room with us before the game, during the game, after the game, so they can get a feel.
?You want to start that process. You want these kids that they look up to to reach back and say, ?Listen, you can make it. If you do the right thing and come through Chester High, you still have the opportunity.? I went to Chester High. I graduated. I went to college and was fortunate to come back as coach.?
He came back as the head coach, knowing the rules: Win a state championship, or be heckled from the stands ? the Chester stands. So after going 24-5 in his first season, he needed to rebuild and worked with a young nucleus through a 16-11 season that did not fast-break past the skeptics. For while he was once a classic Chester guard, he was trying to replace the legendary Pickett, who had replaced the legendary Lewis, Yarbray?s own high school coach.
?They were big shoes to fill,? Yarbray said. ?But I know how it is. Even this year, we lost two games in Florida and you can hear the naysayers and the people talking. They forget about the wins rather quick. We won 61 straight. You would think that would give you a trump card in your back pocket or something. But there are no days off in this program. And me, myself, I expect the same thing.?
The experience of the 16-11 team helped to yield the consecutive state championships that followed, and then such a growth in the program that this season, it twice will appear on an ESPN network.
But even if the Clippers win another championship, Yarbray will be back to work, trying to keep the program where its supporters have come to understand it belongs.
As the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Chester, Yarbray has deepened his community commitment. He still has visions of a college coaching career, and seems a little surprised that the call has yet to come. So he remains at Chester, where, he claims, he has not received a paycheck this season. Continued...
?Why not?? he said. ?I don?t know. But to me, it?s about the kids.?
Which is exactly how it started.
?My other brother, Lamar, is doing real well,? Yarbray said. ?He went to Williamson Trade School and is very successful in power-plant management. So I guess I went 50 percent. But that?s what brought me back here.?
The father of Larry Jr., 13, and daughter Micah, 11, does what he can, winning games, then ducking skeptics and other challenges.
?You try to tell the kids to enjoy the moment,? he said. ?You can?t take anything for granted in life because you never know what may happen in life. But when you?re on the basketball court, you have to play as hard as you can, try to win and do what you have to do to keep it moving.
?Then, good things happen.?
Source: http://delcotimes.com/articles/2012/12/29/sports/doc50dfa1172ad92879682694.txt
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