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Chester football celebrates season

Chester's football players are now either playing other sports or in the weight room, but the team held its end-of-season banquet on Nov. 14 at the Chester High School cafeteria.

Chester head coach Billy Belton highlighted the varsity season, while assistant coaches Trevor Kelkhoff and Jake Cowan talked about the junior varsity and freshman seasons.

"We had a great season," Belton said in a follow-up interview with the Herald Tribune. "The seniors led, they were great leaders, the team followed them.

"We made the playoffs, that's exciting and we laid the groundwork for our elite warrior culture and hopefully these freshmen through juniors build on it."

Offensive MVP went to quarterback Nick Meyer, while linebacker Nick Heffernan earned Defensive MVP. Calvin Clendenin (Offensive Weapon Award), Chase Colvis (Defensive Weapon Award), Garrett Welker (Eric Skorcz Award), Curt Meyer (Elite Warrior Award) and Brady Kelkhoff (Lineman Award) also earned team awards.

Nick Meyer and Colvis are the lone juniors in that group and the Yellow Jackets will have some holes to fill in losing their top four receivers in Clendenin (736 yards, 9 TDs), Meyer (229 yards, 5 TDs), Clayton Richelman (216 yards, 2 TDs) and Heffernan (111 yards 2 TDs) to graduation.

Chester will also lose three starting offensive linemen and two of its top three tacklers in Heffernan (99 tackles, 12.5 TFL) and Wyatt Roth (52 tackles, 4.0 TFL).

"I was lucky enough to inherit a great senior class," Belton said. "I learned some lessons and I've got to get better in some areas.

"We tell the kids that every week we have to get better and I have to do the same thing."

Chester finished a 5-5 season with a loss to Tuscola in the first round. The Warriors (13-0) are playing for the Class 1A state title on Friday at 10 a.m. against equally undefeated Lena-Winslow (13-0).

"We just gotta get stronger," Belton said on the focus of the offseason. "We need to learn from the Tuscola game.

"We have to practice at that level, train at that level and that's the intensity we have to bring."

Pictured are Chester seniors, from left, Garrett Welker, Brady Kelkhoff, Wyatt Roth, Nick Heffernan, Curt Meyer, Jack Hathaway, Alex Hamilton, Mason Westerman, Clayton Richelman and Calvin Clendenin. Courtesy of Misti Price