Football, Wrestling
Favorite athletes: Brian Bosworth/Jerome Bettis
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Shutting out Upper Moreland senior year on their turf 34-0
Music on mobile device:“I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty & Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls
Future plans: Play football in college
Words to live by:“If not me, then who.”
One goal before turning 30: Explore the world
One thing people don’t know about me: I don’t like bugs
By Ed Morrone
All of the 60-some kids Nick Chapman has pinned on the wrestling mat can thank his older brother for all the punishment they’ve endured.
Chapman’s meteoric rise into one of the most accomplished wrestlers in recent history at Hatboro-Horsham is more complex than that, mind you, but at the same time, it’s fun to wonder where Chapman’s athletic career had gone had he been, say, an only child.
“My brother Matt, he’s two years older than me and he started wrestling before I did,” Chapman said. “He would come home from practice and put me in moves, and I got tired of it pretty fast. Once I got to sixth grade I went to a practice and I stuck with it once I saw how much I liked it. And now I could give some back to my brother.”
Chapman, a senior at Hatboro-Horsham, has also enjoyed an accomplished career as a football player for the Hatters. In fact, he started playing football before wrestling, and an affinity for both bruising sports soon followed.
“When I was growing up, I was always the bigger kid, and I always just really enjoyed the physical aspect of both sports,” he said. “I just liked hitting people.”
Chapman’s crushing hits on the football field earned him nicknames from the referees like “Horse” and “Bus,” the latter of which came in honor of Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis. Chapman even wears Bettis’ jersey number of 36 as a tip of the cap to one of his all-time favorite players.
Chapman was never the flashiest athlete, but he more than makes up for it with the ferocity with which he competes. To hear some of his coaches tell it, it’s almost as if Chapman treats every game or match as if his life was on the line.
“We were playing a game once against Plymouth Whitemarsh, one we were winning pretty handily,” Hatters head football coach Michael Kapusta said. “But for Nick, what the scoreboard says doesn’t matter because if we’re playing football, then Nick is coming to play ball. Anyway, he gets hurt and we sub him out of the game. He goes and sees the trainer, and before I know it, two plays later he’s next to me telling me he’s ready to go back in the game.
“We’re up by three scores, maybe more, but Nick didn’t care. He didn’t want to miss another play, so I put him back in and the injury didn’t really affect him the rest of the game or season. He’s as big and strong as they get at the high school level, but the mental strides he’s made have been awesome. As coaches, it doesn’t matter what we throw at him: not only will he get through it, but he will thrive.”
When asked where that intense competitive drive comes from, Chapman again brought it back to growing up in a house with three siblings.
“I just hate to lose, even at little stuff. We used to battle over who could get out of the car and into the house first,” he said with a laugh. “We competed all the time, trying to figure out ways to be bigger, faster and stronger than the others. With sports, I would look at my older brother and say, ‘Oh, you got a pin in 10 seconds? Well now watch me go do it in eight.’”
Trent Mongillo is in his first season as the head wrestling coach at Hatboro-Horsham but has had the pleasure of coaching Chapman since he was in sixth grade in both wrestling and football. Mongillo has literally watched Chapman grow up before his eyes, and as impressive a physical specimen as Chapman is notwithstanding, the coach says what really separates his pupil from the pack is his mental maturity.
“Nick puts in the time,” Mongillo said. “And I don’t just mean at practice and in competitions. He shows up at community and fundraising events, gets involved with the Special Olympics, just things he understands are bigger than himself.”
The selfless quality in Chapman is also strong. Kapusta told a story how, after Chapman’s junior season, the Hatters were going to be losing several starting offensive linemen to graduation. Chapman had played tight end on the offensive side of the ball all season, catching “a decent amount of balls.” Before Kapusta could even assess his roster, Chapman approached him.
“Right when the season ended he came to me and said, ‘Coach, it looks like we might need to replace some linemen, so if you need me to move, it’s no problem. I’d love to. Whatever the team needs,’” Kapusta said. “Everyone likes catching balls and getting their name in the paper, so to see that unselfish aspect was pretty awesome. It’s human nature for most of us, especially young kids, to want what’s best for themselves over the team. And what did Nick do as a senior? Unanimous first-team all-league at both linebacker and offensive tackle.”
During his junior wrestling season, Chapman competed at 220 lbs. in the regular season before moving up to the heavyweight class for the postseason. He ended up qualifying for states, and although he didn’t come home with a medal, the experience prepared him for his senior campaign. At this point, Chapman was 15-0 this season with all the decisions coming via pin.
“Going to states set me up for success this year, I think,” he said. “I already got the wrestling-in-the-big-arena jitters out of the way.”
Chapman is on pace to hit 100 career wins, which nobody in the program has accomplished since 2011. Mongillo said he’s in the running for the program’s all-time pins mark of 82, with Chapman being “somewhere in the 60s” presently. These goals, plus becoming a state champion, are all within Chapman’s grasp; however, when asked about his remaining ambitions before he graduates, Chapman didn’t bring up anything pertaining to himself.
“For me, what’s most important is to keep working with the little guys and teach them stuff for when I’m gone next season,” he said. “At the end of the day, my wrestling career will be over soon, whether it’s here or in college. It’s going to end. So for me, I want to have a legacy at Hatboro-Horsham, someone people look at as not just a real good wrestler, but an even better teammate and person.”
As far as his college search goes, Chapman is still deciding. He’s considering both football and wrestling at the collegiate level, but said he is leaning toward football if he has to make a decision. Doing both in high school is one thing, but in college playing multiple sports becomes more like a full-time job. Chapman singled out West Chester as a school he’s particularly interested in, mainly because it’s less than an hour from home, allowing his three siblings (also an older sister and younger brother) and parents, especially his mom, to come see all of his games.
“My mom, she’s been so involved and she’s very rarely ever missed one of my games,” he said. “Not just driving me to my events all the time, but getting involved in the programs as a parent volunteer, so it would be awesome to go somewhere close to school so she can come and see me play. She’s probably had the biggest effect on me, and whenever I am feeling down or not wanting to wrestle, I think about her and the sacrifices she’s made for me.”
Chapman is leaning towards sports management or physical therapy as a career, and said his ideal job would be to one day work in the Philadelphia Eagles’ front office. But for the time being, he’s just going to enjoy what’s left of his final wrestling season as a high school student-athlete and continue to be the consummate leader for the Hatters that he’s been for the last several years.
“My motto has always been to do your job and good things will happen,” Chapman said. “Leaders are still leaders even when nobody is watching.”
