SPRINGFIELD — The progress is there, even if through tears Jalen Harris didn’t have the clearest view of it.

Two seasons ago, Chester rattled off 12 straight wins to earn the right to host the District 1 Class 5A final. A 28-20 loss to Strath Haven on a sunny Saturday in Chester, with a team whose nucleus was a talented sophomore class, was the promise of more to come.

Two years later, the Clippers are in ostensibly the same place: walking off a field distraught after falling in a district final, this time Friday’s 34-12 decision at Springfield.

Those two data points, though, elide progress between.

“It feels the same,” Harris said. “Any losses feel the same, especially in a high energy game that’s going to stamp us.”

The immediate devastation doesn’t erase a season of progress from C

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