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Harmony High alum Chase Whitfield (53) was the long snapper on the 2023 Division II National Champion Harding University Bison. SUBMITTED PHOTO -
Harmony High alum Chase Whitfield was the long snapper on the 2023 Division II National Champion Harding University Bison. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Chase Whitfield, who played his football at Harmony High School and was part of the Longhorns’ 2018 district championship team, will get a ring this spring as part of Harding University’s national champion Division II squad.
The Bison defeated Colorado School of Mines, 38-7 on Dec. 16 in the D-II National Championship game in McKinney, Tex. to cap off a 15-0 season that saw them win the Great American Conference title and their first national championship.
“It’s in a small town (Searcy, Ark., population about 23,000) where the whole town rallies around the team,” Whitfield said. “The town is a lot like St. Cloud was 20 years ago when my family moved here. It was really great to see them experience something the program had never done, and it was pretty special to be a part of that.”
Whitfield was the long snapper and played a bit of quarterback at Harmony, graduating in 2018. He chose to walk on at the University of Florida, stay in state and try to earn the snapping job there, rather than attend one of a couple Ivy League schools after scoring a 35 on the ACT. He never became a scholarship player for the Gators, instead attending school on a full academic scholarship. He redshirted in 2019 and worked with UF’s scout team and eventually became the backup long snapper.
But he did not get into a game, and once he graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, he then looked for a program where he’d have the shot at being the No. 1 snapper. After finding options, he zeroed in on Harding like one of his on-target snaps. Going from Gainesville to Searcy, Ark.—and from the SEC to Division II— created several culture shocks. Where the Gators played in front of crowds of up to 100,000, the Bison played for crowds of a few thousand per game.
“People asked me what I did in Searcy, and it was football and school,” he said. “I knew the team could be competitive and I had the chance to win the job, so it checked all the boxes.”
The Bison started the Division II season ranked No. 14 in the nation when they played Southern Nazarene (Okla.) on Aug. 31, 2023—his first time appearing in a game since the Harmony Longhorns lost a playoff game in November 2018.
“Snapping is muscle memory, so I wasn’t really worried about any rust,” he said. “I’ll admit I was a little nervous on my first snap, but after that it was great.”
During the year Harding knocked off some of the ranked rivals like Henderson State (No. 20, 27-16) and Ouachita Baptist (No. 5, 41-10). The Bison started the year ranked No. 14 and ascended to No. 3 by the time the playoffs started. During the year, Harding, which runs a triple option-type “Flexbone” offense, became the first team at any NCAA level to rush for 6,000 yards in a season. They scored a lot of points, too, allowing him to snap on a lot of PATs.
“Coming from the SEC, I’d look at some of the teams and realize it was a different brand of football,” Whitfield said. “Then we’d play a team like Grand Valley State (in the playoffs), and they’d look and play like they could be a Division I team.”
The Bison beat Central Missouri (No. 6, 35-34) and Grand Valley State (No. 2, 7-6) in the first two rounds of the Division II playoffs in nailbiters before winning the semifinals (55-14 over No. 11 Lenoir-Rhyne, who had Osceola High alum running back Dwayne McGee, who rushed for 1,520 yards this season) and the championship after falling behind Colorado Mines 7- 0.
“Because we run the option, and you just don’t see that anymore, other teams couldn’t game plan to stop it,” he said of the margins of victory in their final two games. “The season was a grind for everybody; I’d experienced playing to Thanksgiving then working toward a bowl game around New Year’s, but this was different and special.”
Don Simon, Whitfield's coach at Harmony and now the Tohopekaliga High athletic director, said Whitfield deserves all of the success after waiting it out at Florida and finding the right fit.
"I'm just so proud of him," Simon said. "He's always been a hard worker, but something like this, holding that trophy, makes it all worth it."
Since he can take an extra year for being on a roster in 2020 (“the Covid year”), Whitfield said he’ll be back for the 2024 season—and help defend the title—while working on a master’s degree in information technology. And, he’s excited about it.
“This coaching staff is amazing, and they run a good ship, I really love it,” he said. “Most of the guys (like head coach Paul Simmons) played at Harding, and it means so much to them. You don’t find that everywhere. I’m really enjoying the experience.”
