Flying solo in big ten territory

Decision to leave sports behind leads Chapman to summer in Minnesota

“I didn't want to start hating what I used to love doing.” Adam Chapman UNK senior

By Jay Omar

When it comes to academics and athletics it is up to personal opinion to decide what is more important. For 22-year-old senior Adam Chapman, it seems like his entire life has been one in the same in many different ways.

After 14 years of playing baseball, beginning with tee-ball and stretching to a year and a half on the UNK baseball team, Chapman made the decision to let the sport go.

“I no longer loved playing the game. It was just time to focus on more important aspects of my life,” Chapman said, describing the day he walked away from the sport. “It became less of a game and more of a lifestyle. I didn’t want to start hating what I used to love doing.”

Courtesy Somewhere above the clouds, Chapman enjoys his first skydiving experience. Skydiving was one of the many enjoyable activities that took place over the summer.

According to Chapman he made the right decision. As a senior, Chapman is getting ready to graduate with a degree in industrial distribution and currently holds an impressive 3.8 GPA in his department. But Chapman refuses to take all the credit.

“Athletics challenged me more than anything else I have experienced so far in college. Academics are very important, but athletics teaches you many other aspects of life”

This past summer, Chapman completed an internship, mandatory to graduate from the industrial distribution department, in the fairly small town of Red Wing, Minn.

Though this may seem as though it doesn’t have any thing to do with athletics, Chapman soon found the opposite was true.

Red Wing is located just a short four-hour drive from Madison, Wis., which happens to be the home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team’s biggest and newest Big Ten rival.

“Since Red Wing is only four hours away from Madison, it’s safe to say it brought up some interesting arguments,” Chapman said, remembering this wasn’t the first time academics and athletics had clashed in his life. “In the end, football is just a game, and we all understood that.”

Chapman jokingly explained some arguments about the rivalry but mainly focused on the positive experiences he had in Red Wing. He talked about the friends he made, his inside jokes, his first skydiving experience and what Chapman described as his favorite moment during the summer. Summing up that story smiling, he said he didn’t know you could get kicked out of a casino for touching the dealer’s cards.

Chapman came back with a lot more than just work experience; he came back with memories and strong friendships.

“I still call my supervisor pretty often. We talk a whole lot about football, but we also talk shop and check on each other’s families as well,” Chapman said.

Andrew Szink, one of Chapman’s co-workers over the summer, seemed to share nothing but good times and memories over Chapman’s time in Red Wing.

“Adam is a great kid. Sure he’s a Husker fan, but it goes past that. I like to consider him a good friend of mine more than just a co-worker,” Szink said.

Over a long three-month internship, Chapman balanced friendships with rivalry and once again balanced athletics with learning experiences. When asked what he said to his co-workers about the season so far and the loss in Madison, he made a very modest but firm prediction.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we will get our sweet revenge in the Big Ten Championship at the end of the season,” Chapman said.

Some make the decision to draw a fine line between athletics and academics, but Chapman said that he is just fine with letting the two cross over a little bit.

According to Chapman, nothing but positive outcomes came from letting his baseball career go along with taking his internship in what some would call hostile territory. When asked where all the experience and tough decisions will land him in ten years, Chapman smiled confidently: “Right where I need to be.”

Category: Features