Work, football, school: the busy life of Will Chapman as St. FX enters national semifinals

When St. Francis Xavier University's Will Chapman takes to the field Saturday for theX-Men football team, it could be his last game with the team.

That's because thetwo-timeAtlantic University Sport all-star isplanning to move to New Brunswick when the school term is over to continue the full-timejob he's been commuting to while finishing his studiesat St. FX in Antigonish, N.S.

Chapman is a 22-year-old offensive lineman from Bedford, N.S., in his fifth season with the X-Men. St. FX plays the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds on Saturday in Vancouver in the national semifinals with the winneradvancing to the Vanier Cup next weekend.

It seems time management is one of Chapman's many strong suits.

'Right now it's a lot to juggle'

"Right now it's a lot to juggle but really all three aspects, football, work and school are all things I'm really passionate about," Chapman said Thursdayprior to getting on a bus that was transporting the football team to the airport in Halifax. "I'm also really lucky to have some great people around me that allow me to do what it is I'm doing.

"Everybody has been so accommodating for me. My employer and the school and the football team, too, they've been really great to me."

Chapman finishedhis business degree last spring and started working full time for Breathe BioMedical in Moncton, N.B.,where he is the director of finance and accounting. He first started working for the company three years ago as a part-time summer intern.

Thefour-time academic All-Canadian an award given to university athletes who keep their marks above 80 per cent is taking three business credits onthe Antigonish campus anddrives from there to Monctoneach Monday forwork. He works Monday in Moncton but does the rest of his work remotely from Antigonish.

He has been doing a wide variety of jobs with the company, including writing an employee handbook for the growing staff at the business.

Breathe BioMedical's most recent research compared differences between the breathof women who have breast cancer and women who don't. Its business model is based on developing techniques to detect chemical markers in people's breath that can indicate underlyingdisease.

"Organizations need leaders that they can turn to in order to get things done and Will is certainly a leader with our company," said Bill Dawes, CEO of Breathe BioMedical. "He just has a great approach and desire to learn to overturn any obstacles."

Remote work

Since he does most of his work remotely, that's made it possible for him to combine work, school and football. The courses he is taking this semester will go toward his chartered professional accountant designation.

"Will is really what I would call one of the poster boys for the kind of player you want on your team," said St. FX head coach Gary Waterman. "He excels on the field and in the classroom and he gives back to the community, too."

Chapman is one of three former players fromC.P. Allen High School in Bedfordon the X-Men football team.

His coach at St. FX says he is one of the team's leaders and he is not surprised he is pulling off the work-school-football trifecta without any issues.

'I don't know when he sleeps'

"It really just speaks to his maturity and thoroughness in everything he does," said Waterman. "I don't know when he sleeps but I know in all three of those things that he's juggling, they all seem to get 100 per centof his attention and none of them suffer."

The winning teamsof two national semifinal games on Saturday will advance to thenational championship game to be played Nov. 25 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Chapman says he's hoping he can help his team make it to the Vanier Cup, something an AUS school has not been able to do since 2007. The last time St. FX played in the Vanier Cup was in 1996.

"We're really excited about our opportunity this weekend," said Chapman. "We really have a special group of guys here on this team."

TheWestern Mustangs, from the University of Western Ontario,will play theMontrealCarabinsin the other semifinal Saturday. Montreal is the home team.

Both games will be shown on CBC's digital platforms in English, and TVA Sports in French.