Chester will host 2009 IHSA Girl's Class 1A Regional Basketball Tournament Feb. 9-12

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Chester High School will host the 2009 Girl's 1A Regional Basketball Tournament Feb. 9-12 at CHS Colbert Memorial Gymnasium.

Six teams will converge at CHS to compete for the title of 2009 Class 1A Regional Champion. Chester, Valmeyer, Trico, New Athens, Marissa and Christ Our Savior Lutheran High School (COSLHS) will hit the hardwood to determine who will advance to the 2009 Sectional.

The No.1 seed, Marissa and the No. 2 seed, Trico, will receive a bye in the first round.

Chester (No.4 seed) will play New Athens (No.5 seed) Monday, Feb. 9 at 6:00 P.M. to kick off the tournament. Valmeyer (No. 3 seed) will play the second game of the night at 8:00 P.M. against Christ Our Savior Lutheran High School (COSLHS) (No. 6 seed).

On Tuesday, Feb.10 top-seeded Marissa will play the winner of the Chester-New Athens game at 6:00 P.M. At 8:00 P.M. Trico (No. 2 seed) will play the winner of the Valmeyer-COSLHS game.

Wednesday, Feb 11 will be a night off and the Championship of the 2009 IHSA Girl's Class 1A Regional will be determined Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 P.M. and will feature the winners of the Tuesday night games.

The Chester Regional winner will advance to the 2009 IHSA Class 1A Girl's Sectional Tournament which will be hosted this year by Bunker Hill. The Sectional Tournament takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 P.M. The Chester winner will face the winner of the Virden Regional.

The Lady Yellow Jackets will compete in the first round against New Athens, a very familiar opponent. It will be the third time this season that the two foes have faced each other.

Chester hosted the New Athens YellowJackets in regular season action November 25 beating them in a rather close match up, 53-47. CHS met up with New Athens again in the 2009 Lady Jackets Mid-Winter Classic, this time winning 51-48.

Can the Chester Jackets sting the New Athens Jackets a third time in the same season? Only time will tell, but this time both teams will literally be playing for their basketball lives as the loser will hang up their uniforms for the final time this season.

For seniors Emily Beers, Danielle Helmers, Marci Tressler, Kinzie Buchheit and Jamie Springer Game #1 of the Regional is the first step of three in accomplishing one of their primary team goals of 2008-09. That goal is to win the 2009 Class 1A Girl's Regional Tourna-ment and advance to the 2009 IHSA Class 1A Sectional.

Coach Sarah Niebrugge and her 2008-09 Lady Yellow Jackets have every confidence that they can accomplish their goal and win the Regional. They do note, however, that the task will certainly be easier if they have a good crowd support and lots of rowdy Yellow Jacket fans in the stands to cheer them on every step of the way.

Monday, Feb. 9 at 6:00 P.M. the journey begins. CHS Athletic Director, Mike Coffey, likewise strongly encourages everyone to come out to Colbert Gym and support the Lady Jackets. "Home court advantage can go a long way to help boost the team to victory," says Coffey. "I hope that all Chester basketball fans will do their part to be the "sixth man" on the court throughout the tournament for the hometown favorites."