Smith, Haberberger named All-Conference

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The Black Diamond Conference recently announced its All-Conference teams for each division and Chester's Savion Smith and Josh Haberberger were selected.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Smith, a senior, and Haberberger, a junior, were named to the West Division squad. Goreville junior Braden Webb was named MVP, while Christopher junior Jared Curry was selected captain.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Chester finished 20-10 overall last season, with a 7-5 record in the BDC West.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's a good representation of what we've been trying to do," said Chester coach Brad Norman on the All-Conference selections. "I think it says a lot more about those two guys as individuals than it does for our program.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"Savion definitely earned it, ended up with the third most votes overall and he was in the discussion about being our captain."</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Other All-Conference selections to the West Division were Brant Glidewell (Senior, Goreville), Lukas Gunter (Junior, Sesser-Valier), Bradley Young (Junior, Christopher), Jared Meyerhoff (Junior, Trico), Kaeleb Pedigo (Senior, Christopher), Ben Daine (Junior, Vienna), Peyton Massey (Junior, Goreville) and Tyler Winchester (Sophomore, Sesser-Valier).</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Massey, Winchester and Haberberger all tied for the 10th spot in the conference voting. Haberberger missed a significant part of the season undergoing treatment for a blood clot in his back that was pushing on his spinal column.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"It was nice to see the respect from the other coaches, especially with Josh's situation," Norman said. "He actually to play a lot more conference games than people thought because he missed the middle part of our season, so he ended up playing eight out of 10 conference games.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"He was averaging about 12 (points) per game and was shooting the ball really well and I think a lot of coaches noticed that."</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Norman was asked what his hopes for Haberberger were moving forward.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"He's got it all," Norman said. "He's got the intelligence and the leadership. If he could get his shot a little bit more consistent and put on a little bit of weight over the summer, I think he could be a very exceptional ballplayer for us next year."</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Smith will next be in action on the hardwood on Friday, March 31 in the Lions Club All-Star Game at Rend Lake College. He is the lone representative for the Yellow Jackets.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Tickets are $5 and tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.</span>

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