Chase Beeler

Soft-spoken, thoughtful, analytical and intelligent might not be the first words that come to mind when college coaches begin looking for a great offensive lineman to help their football team.

But those words fit well into a description of Chase Beeler, a Chickasaw football player from Jenks, Oklahoma who has drawn full-ride scholarship offers from more than a dozen top colleges around the nation.

A description of Beeler would not be complete, however, unless you add that he is exceptionally strong, tough, hard-working and fiercely competitive.

Chase, a six-foot, three-inch, 275-pound offensive lineman who broke the Jenks High School bench press record with a lift of 442 pounds, is sure to be a great addition to any football program.

Off the field, his 4.0 grade point average, score of 33 on his American College Testing (ACT) exam, and selection as a National Merit Scholarship finalist ensure that his professors will be just as pleased to have him in the classroom as coaches are to have him on the playing field.

While he has narrowed the choices to Stanford, the University of Oklahoma, Northwestern, and Oklahoma State University, he is still carefully considering the final decision.

“Obviously, the academics and the athletic situation are the two primary factors,” Chase said. “The three main things are probably the quality of academics, the quality of professors and how well the academic situation aligns with the athletic situation.”

He added that any chemistry he feels with as he visits with coaches and players during campus visits will also enter into the decision because he will be spending a lot of time with those people during his college career.

Much of his time off the field will be spent hitting the books, as he plans to study politics, history or philosophy with an eye on a career in academia or politics.

“If I were to teach, I would go on to graduate school and try to get a Ph.D.,” said Chase. “If I teach, I would like to teach as a professor, because of the amount of research you get to do and the amount of depth you get involved in with your particular area of study.

“History, philosophy and political science are three things that really interest me and I’m really passionate about. Being able to build your life on something like that and devote your life to the study and advancement of a field is something exciting to me.”

He gives his parents, Darrell and Susan Beeler, much of the credit for his interest and passion for academics.

“It’s something that’s really important to them,” Chase said. “They were always the type of people who, if I wasn’t up to speed on my academics, or if I wasn’t performing in the classroom, even from a young age, they didn’t allow me to participate in football.

“So, thanks to that, and thanks to the overall value they place on education, that’s one of the main reasons that I’m so involved in academics and I’m considering the scholastic status of each university before I take a look at them.”

His interest in politics has him considering the long term implications of choosing the University of Oklahoma.

“Playing at OU, especially in the state of Oklahoma, brings you a lot of political clout, said Chase. “J.C. Watts is a good example. Another really good example is Switzer. When Brad Henry was campaigning for governor, he was kind of on the bubble as to whether or not he was going to win. Then Switzer came out in his support and that more or less sealed the deal for him.”

With everything else he brings to the table, if Chase doesn’t end up in the halls of academia, it would be too surprising for him to find a place in the halls of Congress.

“Generally, I can credit my political interest and my interest in history to my grandparents, because (when I was) growing up they were always involved in the political system, usually campaigning for one candidate or another.”

Beyond that, Chase said that he was thankful to his extended family for the support, encouragement and life lessons that have prepared him to enter the next stage of life.

One of the most important of those life lessons is the ability to set priorities.

“Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in one area in order to advance in another and sometimes that role will reverse and you’ll have to make sacrifices in another area.

“I would say that in order to succeed in anything you really have to learn to prioritize and manage your time.”