Coach Fred Pickett -he will coach the Pennsylvania team vs Maryland in the March 29th All-Star Classic in Steelton!!

Keith Grollier, Allentown Morning Call

"I didn't get over to the Clippers locker room after the game to talk to Pickett because of deadline issues, but several of my colleagues are reporting that Pickett told the team in the locker room and made it official after he emerged.

Many of our District 11 teams have tangled with Pickett's Clippers over the last 13 years. The two things you knew about going against Chester ---- A. you were playing against a very talented group of kids and B. a very disciplined group thanks to Pickett's leadership. He had great control of his kids and I can't remember any of them getting out of hand. Chester fans could be boisterous and were again here, to a degree, in the Jordan Center on Saturday night. But the players were always respectful. "

What pahoops.org said

"Fred Pickett (Chester) wins the 4-A  State Championship for the third time and then announces his retirement in the locker room.  He truly was one of the finest men in the game.  We here at pahoops.org have worked with Coach Pickett on the Pennsylvania/Maryland All-Star Game and the Pennsylvania/Maryland Shootouts over the years and found him to be an outstanding credit to the sport. In 13 seasons, Pickett guided the Clippers to 331 victories, three PIAA Class AAAA titles, eight District One Class AAAA crowns, eight trips to the state final four and won 80.5 percent of his games during his career (331-80 overall)."

Dave Burman sends this from the Delco Times

Editorial: Chester's Pickett leaves legacy of pride

The numbers tell part of the story.

Thirteen seasons.

Three hundred and thirty-one victories.

Three PIAA Class AAAA state championship titles.
 
Eight District One AAAA titles.

Eight trips to the state Final Four and an 80.5 winning percentage.
The numbers are impressive. But numbers don't tell it all.

Not when it comes to Fred Pickett and what he accomplished as coach of the Chester High School boys basketball team.

This year's team may have been his best ever. The Clippers went 33-1 and minutes after claiming the 2008 PIAA Class AAAA state championship, Picket announced his retirement.

"It's time. It's just time. " Pickett said, and with that ended his career as one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Pennsylvania history.
He started as an assistant coach 27 years ago to Cliff Wilson and later to Alonzo Lewis. He learned from two of the best and went on to become even better.

He took a bunch of young men with a lot of raw talent and, year after year, molded them into a team. He taught them what hard work, unselfishness and discipline could bring. He showed them, and they showed the world.
For a beat-up town that hasn't had much to celebrate for the last 30 years, Pickett’s charges could always be counted to lift the spirits of practically everyone in the city during basketball season.

It is fitting that with the city poised to make something of an economic comeback of its own, its pride and joy, Clippers basketball, would once again lay claim to excellence in the way of a state title.

It is almost unthinkable that such a terrific program would be disassembled. But new Superintendent Gregory Thornton is hoping to see three smaller, boutique high schools come into existence. The new schools would be more hands-on and tailored to specific needs and interests of the students.
What that would mean to Chester's basketball dynasty is hard to say” whether each school would have its own team or there would still be just the one and only Clippers squad.

Such concerns shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of what's truly best for the majority of students in the district. Athletics should always play second fiddle to academics in children's lives and yet, in too many of those lives, sports come first.

Yet sports have their place and it's an important place. They allow young men and women to focus their energies and blow off steam in safe environments. They teach discipline and the pleasures of teamwork and camaraderie.

It's more important to play than to win, but winning has its place, too.
Pickett was a coach who was able win by keeping victory in its proper perspective. He knew that if you played hard and the right way, winning would take care of itself.

And even if his team didn't win, even if they lost the state championship, like last year, they could learn from the experience of losing and come back the following year and be even better.

He's going to be sorely missed, said assistant coach Larry Yarbray of Pickett. Not just for what he does on the basketball court, but what he does for the kids. I don't think people appreciate what he's done for these kids.

They should.

And so should the kids heârs helped coach, mentor and teach for 27 years.
No doubt most of them do.

Now there's a legacy worth having.