SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden football coach Jason Howard said Berry College is getting a steal when they signed Chaz Pope on Thursday afternoon.
And it’s not just because he’s a talented football player.
Pope has battled his way back from a foot injury he suffered in the middle of last football season. The injury required surgery, but Pope didn’t let the setback deter him.
Eight weeks following the injury, he had worked his way back for the Panthers’ Class 2A state quarterfinal game at Mars Hill.
“I was thinking that might have ended my football career, but I just kept telling myself that God has a plan for everything,” Pope said. “This happened for a reason. I just needed to work as hard as I could to get back and let my work getting back help show people that I was dedicated to it. I wasn’t just going to give up when times got rough.”
Howard said he’s “super proud” of Pope.
“I’m proud he came back from the injury that he had, which was a career-ending type of injury for a lot of people,” Howard said. “He tore his meniscus last year and missed about three weeks and was back. To me, he’s the definition of a winner. He’s going to do whatever it takes to get on the field.”
Pope said Howard and Berry sophomore tight end Luke Welsh – a former Spring Garden standout football player – talked him up to the Viking coaches, and that helped inspire him to make his recovery.
“They did a lot of work there too, just reassuring them I wasn’t going to give up when it was hard. All I had to do was just get back, and I worked hard to get back,” Pope said.
The Vikings plan to utilize Pope as a free safety. Howard said that position is a natural for him.
“Everybody knows him because of the offensive side (at quarterback and wide receiver), but the coaches know him for defense,” Howard said. “He’s the one they always talk about when they talk about our defense flying around. That’s his natural position. He’s that natural free safety that can fly around and come off the edge, do all kinds of things and cover. That’s what they’ve got planned for him.”
That’s just fine with Pope. He said he’s “happy with that.”
“I like playing defense because I like hitting people,” he said. “Even on defense, you still have a chance to get the ball in your hands. You might scoop a fumble or get a pick. You never know.”
Not only is Pope going to be playing a position he’s comfortable with, he’s got friends he can lean on at Berry in teammates Welsh and Cedar Bluff’s Jacob Burleson.
Burleson signed with the Vikings about a little over a month ago.
“It helps to know that Luke and Jacob Burleson are going to be up there, so at least I will know some people there,” he said. “Luke had a big hand in helping get me recruited. He told the coach (Tony Kunczewski) they needed to look at me. He had a big hand in it. It’s going to be special playing on a team with him again. High school was fun, but to get to do it again at the next level, it’s something you don’t always see.”
Howard believes Pope might even get the chance to play on the field next season.
“I think he’s going to have the opportunity to get into the rotation on defense. I think he’s going to have the opportunity to get back there on kickoff and punt returns. They can utilize him in that respect too,” Howard said. “I think because of his abilities he’s going to have several opportunities to get onto the field on some special teams.
“It’s hard as a freshman. Luke went up there and it’s been an adjustment period for him. He’s played three different positions, but the difference between them is Luke had to move around to different positions than what he was playing in high school. Chaz is going to be playing the same positions.”
But football wasn’t always the sport Pope had his eyes on to play in college. He used to think he wanted to play baseball at the next level, but began to change when he played football at the varsity level.
“I always enjoyed football, but I just felt like I really enjoyed baseball more than anything else,” he said. “After my first varsity season and I got to start in ninth grade, that’s when it really started changing. I want to do both, but I’d rather do this one if I had to pick one.
“If they want me to play (baseball), I’ll play it,” Pope jokingly added. “I won’t turn it down.”
All kidding aside, Pope is grateful just to have an opportunity to play at the next level.
“My teammates had a big hand in it,” he said. “You can’t win any sport by yourself. You’ve got to give credit to them for always working hard. They push me and I push them.
“It’s kind of a tradeoff where we’re both working together to achieve the main goal of winning. I feel like most of our success has come because of how hard we’ve been working. It’s the offseason for some of these people and they’re still working just as hard as if they play tomorrow. I feel like that has a big hand in it.”
Howard said the feeling with Pope’s teammates is mutual.
“All the kids here love him,” Howard said. “They look up to him, and part of that is because he’s not arrogant or cocky or anything. He’s got good parents (Mandy and Phillip Pope). He understands with the people around him, without his teammates, that he wouldn’t be as good as he is. That’s big because a lot of times you’ve got kids who think I’m better than anybody around me. Chaz’s thought process is everybody around me makes me better.
“That’s a huge mentality to have. That’s why he was a captain on our football team. They look at him in the weight room working. He’s back in here at 8 or 9 o’clock at night and works out again. You can’t keep him out of there. That’s just Chaz.”
