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 the X-Men football team, it could be his last game with the team.

That's because the two-time Atlantic University Sport all-star is planning to move to New Brunswick when the school term is over to continue the full-time job he's been commuting to while finishing his studies at 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 winner advancing 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 but really all three aspects, football, work and school are all things I'm really passionate about," Chapman said Thursday prior 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 finished his 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.

The four-time academic All-Canadian — an award given to university athletes who keep their marks above 80 per cent — is taking three business credits on the Antigonish campus and drives from there to Moncton each Monday for work. He works Monday in Moncton but does the rest of his work