Right decision, right time
Chris Gilchriest needed stability. The Mules needed a football player. Together, both were a perfect match.
Nate Taylor: Muleskinner
Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: Homecoming Sports 2009
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No manual exists for what life has thrown Gilchriest -- not when all this has happened to him in five years: Troubled youngster gets kicked out of high school, moves back in with his mom, becomes a better student, picks up football, graduates, starts getting into trouble again, leaves with a friend to go to the middle of nowhere, decides to quit football, then gets an opportunity that changes his life.
Gilchriest, 23, has never known stability. For the longest time, he didn't know such a thing existed. He just thought everybody's life was full of unexpected changes. So, when another big opportunity came his way - the one he never saw coming - he adapted to the changes, not knowing what to expect.
Fortunately for him, and for Central Missouri, sometimes taking chances can be the best decisions.
***
Gregg Nesbitt had a problem. In his first year as co-defensive coordinator for the Mules in August 2007, Nesbitt didn't have enough linemen. A player who had been expected to play significant minutes was now out for the year with a knee injury.
Looking through his recruiting charts, Nesbitt wanted to know if the Mules could find a player at the last minute. Nervous and anxious to find a solution, he sifted through a tape from Dodge City Community College that had come across his desk.
The tape was of a defensive lineman who didn't have the best technique but always seemed to be making plays.
"He had a great motor on every play," Nesbitt recalled. "You never know how it's going to work. But there was something on that tape."
The person on that tape was Chris Gilchriest. And that piece of film was all Nesbitt needed. The Mules had to grab Gilchriest.
Nesbitt ordered graduate assistants Jed Paulsen and Kellen Nesbitt, his son, to find Gilchriest and bring him to training camp. The only problem was training camp started in two days. Nesbitt was now taking the ultimate leap of faith. He knew nothing about Gilchriest, didn't know his background or if he was even in Dodge City, Kan.
"What can I say?" Nesbitt said. "We needed a defensive lineman."
Paulsen and Kellen Nesbitt took the six-hour drive to Dodge City, where nothing was guaranteed. All Greg Nesbitt could do was hope Gilchriest would come back with the grad assistants.
***
Chris Gilchriest didn't want to play football anymore. As far as he was concerned, the game was in the past.
"I was just hanging out," Gilchriest said. "Then, some of my teammates at the time from Dodge City told me some coaches were looking for me."
Paulsen and Kellen Nesbitt found Gilchriest at a campus cafeteria. Immediately, the grad assistants started selling Central Missouri. Still, even as they told Gilchriest how much they needed him, they had a problem: Gilchriest had never heard of Central Missouri.
Gilchriest was from Paterson, N.J., and didn't know a lot about schools in the Midwest. Why in the world would he leave Dodge City to come to Warrensburg to play football on such short notice?
The answer was a full-ride scholarship. When Gilchriest heard those words, he had to start listening to the proposals.
After talking to the coaches for the rest of the day, Paulsen and Kellen Nesbitt dropped some sobering news on Gilchriest. If he agreed to play for Central Missouri, he had to leave with them now.
That information made Gilchriest hesitate. But seeing how badly the grad assistants wanted him, Gilchriest told them to give him the night to think about the offer. They agreed and found a hotel to stay the night.
They left Gilchriest alone to think about his past and to see if football could be in his future.
***
For Gilchriest, his inability to stay in one place started in high school in 2005. After his parents separated, Gilchriest wanted to live with his father, Sam Gilchriest, in Vidalia, Ga. That decision turned sour when Gilchriest was expelled from school.
"He was going against my will," Sam Gilchriest said. "Chris was hanging with the wrong people at that time."
Then, Chris Gilchriest smashed his truck into a tree going 80 mph trying to find a CD. Fortunately, he walked away from the crash with just a burn on his nose from the impact of the airbag.
"That was a big shocker," Sam Gilchriest said. "I really thought his life was self-destructing. I still don't know how he walked away from it."
The move from New Jersey to Georgia was supposed to make him better. Sam Gilchriest thought moving back to New Jersey would only make his son worse. The opposite happened. Living with his mother, Rose, Chris Gilchriest finished high school and played football at Eastside High. But as soon as school was over, Gilchriest was seen with the wrong crowd again. Gilchriest wanted to be like his peers and didn't think he could play football at the college level.
"I wasn't good at all in high school," he said.
Instead, Tristan Norman, a friend and teammate from his high school football team, wanted to help find Gilchriest a school where he could continue to play football. Dodge City became that school. So, on a random day in July, Gilchriest packed his things and drove to the middle of Kansas.
After redshirting for a year, Gilchriest made an impact on the field, totaling more than 60 tackles for the Conquistadors. By the end of that season in 2007, schools like the Arkansas and Kansas wanted to know more about Gilchriest. Iowa State even came to Dodge City and offered him a scholarship to play there. All that was needed was his transcript. But once Iowa State saw that Gilchriest's grades didn't add up, the school took the scholarship back.
That was the point where Gilchriest didn't want to play football anymore. If he couldn't play for Iowa State, then he would stay in Dodge City. Sure, Missouri Western State wanted Gilchriest. Southwest Baptist even offered a scholarship that Gilchriest signed after the national signing day, meaning he didn't have to commit to play for the Bearcats. At that point, Gilchriest was happy without football.
That was until Central Missouri came with grad assistants in a car ready to take him to camp. After talking to his father, Chris Gilchriest thought this could be his last opportunity to make something of himself.
"I told myself, 'Look, I'm going to take this,' " he said.
At 6 a.m. the next day - Aug. 5, 2007 - Paulsen walked into Gilchriest's apartment.
"Hey, buddy," Paulsen said. "Let's go. Get your stuff. We're going."
At that moment, Gilchriest started packing up his life again, throwing most of his clothes in trash bags. He was going to get in the car with the grad assistants.
***
Less than 10 hours after leaving Dodge City, Chris Gilchriest was on the football field with his new teammates. And although Gilchriest was overweight at 310 pounds, he had to do all the activities with the rest of the team. The toughest was the "Mule run," which required players run 800 yards in three minutes.
Gilchriest did the run in five minutes. Usually, that would have been embarrassing. But players and coaches were encouraging him the entire time. Some even ran the last 100 yards with him. As he finished the run, the rest of the Mules cheered him for his effort.
At that moment, with his teammates applauding him, Gilchriest knew he had made the right decision in coming to Central Missouri.
"I appreciated them for that," he said. "I've never had anybody push me through like that. After that, I told the guys they were going to be like family."
In his first year, as he was trying to lose weight, Greg Nesbitt saw how Gilchriest played with such intensity. So, as Nesbitt started to get to know who Gilchriest was, he couldn't but put his trust in the man he blindly brought to campus.
"You have to know that we cared about him as a person and not just a football player," Nesbitt said. "I think coaches, in my opinion, are the king of demanding loyalty and often times not getting it in return. That trust has to be earned and I think we're treating him fair."
For the first time in his adult life, Gilchriest was fully embraced by others. Instead of moving because he had done something wrong or to follow others, Gilchriest was at Central Missouri because his coaches and teammates wanted him there.
***
Now in his third year as a Mule, Gilchriest is the happiest he's ever been. As a starting defensive lineman for the 16th-ranked Mules, Gilchriest has made an impact on the defense.
"He's been a solution to defensive problems ever since he got here," Greg Nesbitt said. "He's one of my favorite kids. He's had to learn emotional stability, and he's evolved into a fabulous emotional leader."
The leap of faith by both parties - Gilchriest and the coaching staff - has led to success. So much so that Gilchriest could become an All-MIAA player this season. And instead of being in New Jersey with thugs and drug dealers, he is on track to become the first member in his family to graduate from college.
"It's great to see him turn his life around the way he has," said Sam Gilchriest, who watches his son play football every Saturday on his computer.
Even when the Mules beat Southwest Baptist earlier this season, Paulsen was there to put Gilchriest's decision into perspective.
"And you were thinking about going to school there?" Paulsen said.
All Gilchriest could do was laugh.
"The most fun I've had has been this season," Gilchriest said. "It's been a blast."
Now, for the first time, Gilchriest has stability in his life. Although he's not certain what job he will have after college, he said his experiences at Central Missouri have shown him he will succeed.
"I think coming here was the best move I've ever made in my whole life," Gilchriest said. "To come here and be accepted with open arms is touching to me."
That feeling is still new to him, which makes him think about how his journey to Central Missouri happened. No matter what aspect he thinks about, Gilchriest knows this: Coming to Warrensburg was worth the gamble.
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