Chester’s football team is playing for Zaheem Sabree, a victim of gun violence: ‘Kids shouldn’t be dying’

Shamar Williams gripped his shoulder pads and readjusted his posture. His body language was stiff. It was hard to put together words — it made the situation more real, but the STEM Academy senior knew he needed to be strong.

Williams is still grieving the loss of his Chester High football teammate, 17-year-old Zaheem Sabree, who was shot and killed on June 30.

He took a deep breath. Then he began to speak about his friend, a STEM Academy student who played defensive back and receiver for two years at Chester, and was said to be one of the funniest players on the team.

“Me and Zaheem, we were close,” Williams said during a recent practice. “He was my dude in school. Out here, without him … it’s more than just football for me now, I’ve got to be out here for him.”

Sabree suffered a gunshot wound to the head near 24th and Crosby Streets in Chester, according to police. He was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities gave no motive for the crime but said there had been developments in the case, which remains under investigation.

The Sabree family is mourning the loss of a life taken too soon. But this isn’t the first time the community has dealt with losing a player to the city’s gun violence.

Coach Dennis Shaw, who has been with the program for 11 years, said it has been difficult for everyone, including himself. He has offered support to the players and encourages them to be there for one another, because now they have to be the voice that keeps Sabree’s name and memory alive.

“We met two days after [the shooting],” Shaw said. “I let them know that there’s nothing I can tell you to make you feel better. What I can do is try to make sure that we have the resources to heal and we’re going to get through this together.

“It’s just gut-wrenching, because it’s like losing a son or losing a brother.”

Zane Tillery, a senior left guard, knew Sabree since childhood, playing youth football in Upland.

It was there that Sabree got the nickname “Baseball” for always wearing baseball gear at practice. He was a jokester and knew how to light up a room.

“Funniest person I ever met,” Tillery said. “Always had energy. He kept everybody going, kept this whole program up. He made the coaches laugh, he made everybody laugh. He would come into the room and just make a noise. It’ll just be a funny noise and we all crack up. Then he’ll just keep it going, doing little dumb stuff, just to make everybody laugh.”

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Sabree was an honor roll student at STEM Academy, whose students can play for Chester as an affiliated school in the Chester Upland School District. Williams had an automotive class with Sabree in which the two shared an interest in working on cars. Their friendship grew from there.

His friend taught Williams how to change the oil and tires on a car. It gave Williams a possibility for what to do next. “I wanted to follow his path and see how it goes,” Williams said.

On the field, Sabree was committed to the game. He had raw talent, Shaw said, and was coachable. Over the last two years, he was working toward a starting spot on the varsity team.

Tillery said this season meant a lot to Sabree, who wanted to help the team make another run at a district title and possibly claim a state championship. Last year, the Clippers fell in the quarterfinals to Strath Haven in the PIAA Class 5A playoffs.

Tillery, though, was not planning on coming back this year. He was done with football. That was until Sabree had something to say about it.

“He told me, ‘I’m going to need you,’” Tillery recalled. “He just kept telling me to stop drifting. He kept bringing me back. I just kept drifting off — doing dumb stuff. Then ‘Lil Heem’ brought me back to football. I fell in love with it again.”

No one can prepare someone for a moment of tragedy, and everybody mourns differently.

That was the first thing Shaw wanted his players to understand. Since the incident, Shaw has been holding weekly grief counseling sessions for about an hour with a professional therapist in the school’s auditorium. He plans to continue those sessions during the season.

In a statement released July 2, the Chester Upland School District also offered support services for staff and students at STEM Academy, and provided online options for families through Peter’s Place and Dougy Center, both grieving services.

“These coaches might be the only people that [the players] can open up to,” Shaw said. “This is their safe haven. We didn’t practice for that week, but we were still in the building, still had our doors open so that the guys could come and we can cry.”

Football was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Chester quarterback Jalen Harris, a junior at STEM Academy, said the team’s dynamic was off.

“It felt weird without him being out here,” he said. “It was like, no more jokes.”

But the team’s mindset has gradually started to change. The Clippers are playing in his honor, and they kicked off their season on Aug. 23 with a 19-14 win over Perkiomen Valley High.

Coaches gave out “#20″ stickers, Sabree’s jersey number, to each player to place on their helmets during practice.

“This was his senior year. He was going to be a starter, which he worked his [butt] off for,” Shaw said. “He wouldn’t want them to not be playing football. Because if he was still here, this is what he would be doing.”

The gun violence in Chester, particularly affecting young people, has left many angry and frustrated.

In June 2017, Zion Abdullah, a 16-year-old football player, was shot and killed on his way to school. In March 2020, Edward Harmon, 15, who played football and basketball at Chester, died in a shooting that left another teen dead and two others wounded.

Shaw shed some light on what the teenagers are going through.

“I just wish that there was something out there for them other than football. His tragedy happened on a Sunday — we know where he would be if football was on a Sunday.”

“There’s a lot of things that could be done so kids can’t venture off throughout the course of the day,” Shaw said. “When you’re in an inner city, a place like this, there’s not really much that a teenager can do. If we have to do something, we have to branch off somewhere where a kid might not have a ride out there.

“I just wish that there was something out there for them other than football. His tragedy happened on a Sunday — we know where he would be if football was on a Sunday.”

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Tillery, Williams, and Harris want the violence to stop. It’s difficult for them to process why this keeps happening, and they never expected it to affect someone they shared the field with.

“Kids shouldn’t be dying,” Tillery said. “We shouldn’t have to bury kids — that should never have to happen.”

“I just wish we’d stop killing each other,” Harris added. “Teens don’t even get to grow up.”