By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
Buried by a brutal NCKL schedule and the challenge of youth, the Chapman football team finished the 2024 campaign at 2-7, marking a third-straight season with three or fewer wins.
Culture changes don’t happen overnight, but under second-year head coach Jason Grider, things appear to be moving in the right direction, and the Irish are hopeful that could translate to more notches in the win column very soon.
“The work we’ve put in is what has me most excited,” Grider said. “That started last year, and our kids bought in right away. They’ve worked their tails off all summer long and into practice. We’re getting to where we need to be to win games, and we’re still going to be young, but we’ve got coachable kids and they’ve put on a lot of size and strength.”
The NCKL has become a gauntlet, with four of its seven schools finishing .500 or better a season ago, and 21 of those 33 total losses coming at the hands of other NCKL foes.
That standard is what Chapman has their eyes on, and it’s teams like Wamego, Rock Creek, Marysville, and Clay Center that the Irish will have to go through to return to playing November football.
“It sounds simple but we’ve improved in our blocking and tackling and we’re getting to spots when we need to a lot faster,” Grider said. “Our conference is loaded and we’ve got no weeks off, our guys know they’ll be in for a fight every week but that should make us battle tested by the time we get to the playoffs.”
Experience will play a big role for the Irish this season, as their starting lineups feature just three underclassmen, all sophomores, across the board.
“We return a lot of talent and the guys that maybe didn't get as much playing time last year have done a great job,” he said. “When you play a bunch of sophomores like we did last year, you don’t always make great decisions, but they’ve got great experience and great leadership.”
The biggest change will come at quarterback, where junior Andrew Scott takes the reins from the recently graduated Cooper Lewis.
“Andrew’s embraced his role from the spring to the summer,” Grider said. “He’s a great leader, a hard worker and a three-sport guy. He was a state qualifier in track and he understands his role and what his job is. In our system you have to make a lot of reads on the fly and he does that well.”
The Chapman backfield will feature a mix of old and new, with returning scrimmage-yards leader Audiel Becker taking over at tailback alongside Colten Bell and Kaicen DeWeese.
In the trenches, seniors Ian Sayers, Jacob Gfeller, and Neziah Brown anchor the O-Line, with Brown playing two-ways as a star on the D-line as well.
Sayers, Becker, DeWeese and Brecken Francis fill out the starting roles in the linebacking corps, while Dom Krogman and Andrew Scott lead efforts in the secondary.
“I think this team has a pretty high ceiling,” he said. “We’re going to be fairly young again this year but we’ve got smart kids who got some experience last year, and the sky could be the limit if we keep developing and stay injury-free.”
The Irish will have a great chance to see just how far they’ve come when they travel to Smith Center to battle the Redmen in week one.
“We’ll see if we’ve improved as much as I think we have, especially in the run game,” Grider said. “If we can get that going, I think that will help our defense a lot as well. We’ve got really smart kids at Chapman and we’ve been building up our football IQs as well.”
Full 2025 Football Schedule
9/5 - at Smith Center
9/12 - vs. Abilene
9/19 - vs. Riley County
9/26 - at Clay Center
10/3 - vs. Concordia
10/10 - at Wamego
10/17 - at Marysville
10/24 - vs. Rock Creek