Chester Biddy wins national title

Someone please send the
coaches and players names

Thanks to the Community Spirit paper we’ve learned Chester Biddy went to Kansas City, Missouri and won a national title. Congratulations guys. 

Chester Biddy used to be the only game in town for youth basketball but AAU basketball hit the scene and has given young ballers a lot more opportunity to play the game they love. To learn that the age old Biddy League is still hanging on is a testament to its legacy in Chester and all the men and women who volunteer to keep the program going. 

The Spirit story did expose the team’s financial struggles to get to KC and their angel saviour Jameer Nelson kicking in big bucks to help defray expenses (even though he also does the same for the AAU team he sponsors each year - Team Nelson). 

There was mention that the team seeks Chester business sponsors. I wonder how much more support they’d get if they would use the local press to expose the league, games, and players throughout the season. I didn’t see a single game recap from their regular season or a story of their journey to get to the nationals anywhere. I’m sure The Spirit would have printed something if they knew ahead of time. The Chester City Blog certainly would have. 

After my great experience covering the Chester Panther youth football season with YouTube videos this past summer (which has nearly 9000 views and counting), as well as publishing a dedicated Sports Spotlight paper for the Panthers, I would have expected to hear from anyone in the Biddy organization to cover their season. Honestly, and sadly, no one sent me as much as a schedule. I didn’t even know where, when, or if Biddy had a season this year. I forgot all about Biddy basketball until I saw the Community Spirit article and I love going to their games. 

If you want support, you’ve got to get the word out to folks like myself who has a dedicated audience hungry to follow good news from Chester. I’ve got interns eager to cover stuff like Biddy basketball but if I don’t know about it, it won’t happen automatically.

One correction to The Spirit article. They mentioned that only one other Chester team won a national championship. I’m not a Chester Biddy historian but I do know that I played on a national championship team in the 70’s when the tournament was played in Chester at Widener University with Donny Dodds earning Mr. Biddy honors, and I’m pretty sure there was a championship team before us in the 60s that won in Puerto Rico with Eddie Swain as Mr. Biddy.

To our Biddy experts, please chime in and let’s get the Biddy history correct. It’s too much a part of our city to not have the facts verified. 

(I can't help but to mention that as good as we were in the 70s, the current crop of players would have ran us off the court. They are so much bigger, stronger, and possess skills that we could not match. The old NBA would beat the new NBA but the new Biddy would crush the old Biddy, no doubt about it).