IRISH INSIDER: Special teams player balanced football and lacrosse
By JOE LINDSLEY
Sports Writer
Football practice five days a week is tough enough.
Especially when one couples that with starting for the lacrosse team.
Add to that an engineering degree, and why not toss in an MBA too?
Then, just for kicks, throw in playing the bagpipes when time allows.
Chad DeBolt does not like to miss opportunities.
"It's just been a great ride," DeBolt said. "That's the reason why I came here. I wanted to play football and lacrosse."
DeBolt never thought it would be an easy ride, but he always believed that if the ride were enjoyable, it would be doable.
"I knew it was going to be tough," he said. "I just worked really hard, and I had some little bit of luck behind me, and everything kind of fell into place. I've played with a bunch of great guys on both teams, so I've just been very blessed to have the opportunity to do it."
DeBolt was recruited to come to Notre Dame to play lacrosse, but that did not mean he was about to relinquish football. Before he came to South Bend as a freshman, he sent out brochures to the Irish football coaches in hopes of gaining their attention. They did not respond.
Nevertheless, he held onto the dream, and as a high school senior, told Irish lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan of his desire to be a part of the Notre Dame football team.
"I always had in the back of my mind that I love football too," he said. "I always liked both equally the same. What better place to be able to play them both than here, so it just worked out great."
Although Corrigan encouraged DeBolt, it was not until DeBolt's sophomore year that he earned a spot on the football team. Fall of that year proved to be the most trying of his collegiate experience, with football practice five days a week as part of the scout defense and then three-hour lacrosse scrimmages on Sundays.
The following years, he did not attempt such a hard fall routine, but still found time to watch lacrosse practice, "just to see how the team's going."
While he did not appear in a game his sophomore year, as a junior, DeBolt played in every game of the season on special teams.
DeBolt said the route to success when trying to balance so much springs from having a passion in all pursuits.
"You have to enjoy what you're doing," DeBolt said. "[It is] time management. You have to find quality in everything you do, if you have fun doing it, it'll be easy to do."
In high school, DeBolt had always enjoyed math and science, so engineering seemed a good fit for him.
"I enjoyed my classes, but it's definitely been very tough, very demanding," he said. "But it pushes you to the limit, and hopefully it will get me ready for the next step."
Even with all of these challenging commitments, DeBolt found time for other pursuits.
"I play bagpipes," he said with a laugh, almost surprised himself at his high level of involvement.
Despite all that he's done at Notre Dame, DeBolt sometimes wishes he could have done more.
"I wish I had put a little more time into the school," he said. "I think it's a great school, there are a lot of things you can get out of it."
In a sense, DeBolt, who wants to work on Wall Street after graduation next spring, feels lucky about what he has been able to accomplish at Notre Dame. With his passion for the school, for the football and lacrosse teams, and dual engineering and MBA degree, DeBolt has become a Notre Dame man — northern Indiana's version of the Renaissance man.
All Sports Stories for Friday, November 22, 2002
