Chaptman Turning The Corner At BC (Daily News-Record)

Daily News-Record - By Jeremy Cothran

BRIDGEWATER — Jeff Highfill called out his cadences, snuck a peek to his left, shouted an audible and threw the football toward the sideline, a quick out meant to catch a napping cornerback off guard.

Not gonna happen – not with Earl Chaptman playing defense.

Chaptman snatched the pass out of midair and turned on the afterburners as he raced down the sideline during football practice at Bridgewater College on Monday, prompting a prediction from one of the cornerback’s coaches.

"It’ll be the same against McDaniel," defensive coordinator Grant Higgison told Chaptman after the drill, referring to BC’s season opener Sept. 2.

Chaptman, a junior from Baltimore, will start at one of the two cornerback slots this fall. Although he’ll be playing opposite preseason Division III All-American Josh Knight of Harrisonburg, coaches don’t expect him to be overshadowed.

Rather, they expect Chaptman to help plug holes in a BC pass defense that allowed 3,302 yards last season.

"We’ve always had a lineage of great cornerbacks here," Higgison said after practice. "Starting with Steward White and now Josh [Knight]. Earl is going to be the next guy in line. He’s out on that edge, and I can tell you, he makes my life easier having him there."

It doesn’t hurt that Chaptman and Knight hang out constantly, whether playing EA Madden Football or going to the movies.

"Josh is one of my closest friends," Chaptman said as he pulled his mid-length dreadlocks underneath a silk cap. "I talk with him all the time. We talk a lot. Me and Josh have been on the field for three years together now. We’re even on the same page. We can look across the field at each other and know what’s going on."

Chaptman was born and raised in East Baltimore, a gritty inner-city neighborhood that served as the backdrop for HBO’s popular crime drama, "The Wire." Murders, drug use and gang activity are a part of life in the B-More projects, a backdrop of Chaptman’s life he’s happy to forget.

"It’s tough, man," Chaptman said. "It’s real tough. A lot of kids get caught up in things that get them off track. I’m glad that I had a mother and coaches that kept me on track. There might have been times that I got myself in trouble, but they always kept me on track. That’s what got me here today."

Chaptman said he still has friends involved in the city’s seedy side, a reason he spent this summer in Bridgewater working out and running sprints with Knight.

Knight grew up on Kelley Street, one of Harrisonburg’s tougher neighborhoods. He understood the need to put those aspects of life behind him.

"We got a saying back there [on Kelley] that ‘real recognize real,’" said Knight, who celebrated his 21st birthday Thursday. "So no matter where you from, we know we went through the same thing with all the violence growing up."

Chaptman mockingly scoffed at the notion that Knight truly understands his rough upbringing, saying that Harrisonburg and Baltimore are not on the same level.

"Where Josh lives now," Chaptman said, "I hate to say it, but the way I see it, I just don’t see it as tough as Baltimore. It’s such a big city, and it has so much going on in terms of murders and stuff."

BC unearthed Chaptman when coach Michael Clark received a call from his coach at Dunbar High School, the gist of the conversation being that Chaptman was a talented athlete – he played quarterback and was the starting point guard for the Poets – who was not getting any recruiting looks.

"We kind of lucked into him," Higgison said. "And so we went up there, coach [Peter] Raeford [Jr.] went up there, spent some time with him and then we got him here and we put him into the fire as a freshman. He’s learned from the repetitions and the game situations."

Higgison said Chaptman’s skills at cornerback allow him to take some gambles with blitzes and be aggressive with coverage schemes, instead of strictly relying on zone defenses when BC plays pass-happy Old Dominion Athletic Conference teams.

Chaptman’s lack of size -- 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds -- teased a lot of ODAC teams into trying to beat him with jump-ball passes on fade routs, but Higgison noted that Chaptman’s athletic ability allows him to compensate.

"For a guy his size," Higgison said, "he can go up and play that deep ball. A lot of teams would try to throw that fade on him, and he’d just jump up and get it. He’s gotten better and better over the years and become a more well-rounded corner."

As Chaptman’s game progresses, so should his stats. He finished with just one interception last year, five short of Knight’s total.

"It’s every man for himself out there," Knight said. "You just gotta handle your business."

Both on the football field and on the streets.