Woodstock's David Chinlund goes from unknown to D-II commit

Woodstock football coach Mike Brasile had to put the hard sell on David Chinlund two years ago just to come out for football.

Brasile saw this big, strong-looking kid walking the hallways and naturally envisioned a lineman.

“He told me right away his whole heart was into hockey,” Brasile said. “He didn’t have a lot of interest in football. The more I worked on him, the more he softened up to the idea.”

Brasile eventually talked Chinlund into coming out for summer workouts in 2019, before his junior year. Chinlund (6-foot-6, 260 pounds) can sign his National Letter of Intent with NCAA Division II Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday, about 16 months after having first played a game of football.

Wednesday through Friday is the early signing period for football. The later signing period starts on Feb. 3 and runs through April 1 for D-I athletes (through Aug. 1 for D-II).

Other McHenry County players who can sign until Friday are Prairie Ridge’s Carter Evans (Eastern Michigan), Marengo’s Cole Davis (North Dakota) and Jonah Pace (Central Michigan), and Richmond-Burton’s Luke Eckhardt and Jacob Petersen (Holy Cross).

Evans will join his brother Samson, a sophomore running back, at Eastern Michigan. He will play either tight end or defensive end.

North Dakota likes Davis, one of the area’s top receivers the last two seasons, as a defensive back, while Pace plans on playing on the defensive line at Central Michigan.

Eckhardt initially committed to Northern Illinois as an offensive lineman, but switched to Arizona. Petersen will play tight end at Holy Cross. They were integral parts of last year’s Class 4A state championship team that finished 14-0.

“It feels pretty surreal,” Chinlund said. “I never would have expected this to happen two years ago. It’s very unreal. I’m very excited and looking forward to it.

“From first day of practice to now, I’ve gotten much more confident. Playing games really boosted my confidence. At the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing.”

Brasile got the approval of Mike and Shelli Chinlund for their son to play football and David started with the Blue Streaks in their 2019 summer workouts.

“He was pretty raw. Getting him into a stance the first time was pretty interesting,” Brasile said. “Getting him to fire out and understand the game.

“It was Week 4 or somewhere and we ran a bootleg and he’s blocking his guy all the way down in the end zone. The receiver catches the ball and there’s David standing right next to him and it was illegal man downfield. I said, ‘Dave, you can’t go downfield when there’s a pass.’ He said, ‘I was just blocking my guy.’ ”

But Chinlund picked up things quickly. And his background as a competitive powerlifter and hockey player have served him well. Brasile thinks the hockey aids Chinlund’s footwork and speed, while the Twitter videos of him powerlifting definitely caught the attention of college coaches.

Chinlund’s Twitter feed has a video of him hang cleaning (lifting from waist to shoulders) 195 pounds for 15 repetitions, another of him bench-pressing 225 pounds for 15 reps and him deadlifting 645 pounds on a trap bar pull.

Brasile started tagging reporters who are recognized by recruiters for knowing players and the offers began coming in.

“My dad introduced me to weightlifting in the eighth grade and I went pretty regularly,” Chinlund said. “My sophomore year I found out I could deadlift and it’s taken off from that.”

Suddenly, after the videos hit Twitter, Chinlund became quite popular among a lot of D-III programs.

“It was a super-cool experience,” Chinlund said. “I recently joined Twitter, people said it is a way to get your name out there. It was a very cool feeling (receiving the attention).”

Chinlund could sign this week, but said he plans on waiting for a signing ceremony with his Streaks’ teammates at the high school in February.

Chinlund played hockey with the Yellow Jackets, out of the Crystal Ice House, for 10 years, then played two seasons with the Highland Park Falcons, a higher-level team. He is back with the Yellow Jackets now because it allows him to focus more on football.

“I like the physicality,” Chinlund said. “As a hockey player I always liked the contact. The bonds you make with your teammates and linemates (in football) is a very cool dynamic.”

• Here is a list of local players who can sign their National Letters of Intent with NCAA scholarship football schools starting on Wednesday.

Player (HS), Pos – College (level)

David Chinlund (Woodstock), OL-DL – SW Minnesota St. (D-II)

Carter Evans (Prairie Ridge), TE-LB – Eastern Michigan (D-I)

Cole Davis (Marengo), WR-DB – North Dakota (D-I)

Jonah Pace (Marengo), OL-DL – Central Michigan (D-I)

Luke Eckhardt (Richmond-Burton), OL-DL – Arizona (D-I)

Jacob Petersen (Richmond-Burton), TE-DE – Holy Cross (D-I)