BREAKING SPORTS: Black Diamond Conference Accepts Chester
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The 2009-2010 sports seasons at Chester High School will turn into a farewell tour after the Black Diamond Conference schools voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the Yellow Jackets into the BDC.
Chester will join the Black Diamond Conference at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year and will compete in the Black Diamondís West Division.
Chester and Carterville will swap conference affiliations as the Lions' application to join the SIRR was approved last week.
Other schools in the BDC include Campbell Hill (Trico), Carmi, Christopher, Eldorado, Elverado, Fairfield, Johnston City, Hamilton County, Sesser-Valier, Vienna and Zeigler -Royalton.
According to BDC President Jackie Smith of Trico, Chester was accepted into the new league by an 11-0 vote.
As of now in the BDC, Chester will play every school in the football, baseball and softball seasons.
So this upcoming season will mark the final time the Yellow Jackets will play the Sparta Bulldogs on the football field for the foreseeable future.
The Chester-Sparta rivalry is the second longest rivalry in southern Illinois behind Carbondale-Murphysboro and just ahead of Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.
In volleyball and boys and girls basketball, the BDC is broken down into East and West divisions.
Chester will take Carterville spot in the BDC West Division and will face Sesser-Valier, Trico, Ziegler Royalton and Christopher.
Up until the early 90s, the Yellow Jackets were part of the historic Southwestern Egyptian Conference (SWEC) which formed in 1939. In football, Chester won or shared the SWEC conference title in 1953, 1954 and 1965.
In baseball, Chester won the SWEC in 1950 and 1976 and also won a cross-country conference championship in the SWEC in 1979.
During basketball seasons, only the 1991 Lady Jackets won a conference title in the Southwestern Egyptian Conference.
Track teams at CHS have claimed three SWEC conference titles but you have to dust off the record books for two of them.
The boys won the SWEC conference titles in 1943 and 1946 while the ladies claimed their only SWEC title in 1992.
The boys golf team won five SWEC championships during a six year stretch in the mid 70s.
After the forming of the Southern Illinois River to River, the Yellow Jackets continued to battle such SWEG schools such as Du Quoin, Anna Jonesboro, Nashville, Pinckneyville and Sparta.
To date, Yellow Jacket teams have claimed or shared a total of 13 conference titles.
The most successful team has been the Lady Jacket track team which has won the conference championship six times (1997, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006).
The Jacket football team has shared the title in the Mississippi Division three times.
"This looks like a pretty good move for both Chester and Carterville," Du Quoin Athletic Director John Campbell said Wednesday morning. "I am a traditionalist and Chester's always been a part of our conference. Its going to seem strange without playing them. But we are glad to add a strong school like Carterville. They will bring a lot to our league."
-Jeff Profitt contributed