Chandler Grows Up For Springdale High

— The game is starting to slow down for Fuller Chandler.

The Springdale High sophomore quarterback has six starts under his belt in his first season of varsity football. The Friday nights competing in the rugged 7A/6A-West have gotten easier as the year has progressed.

“People would ask what’s the difference between junior high and high school,” Chandler said. “It’s just so fast. Everything’s moving so fast and happening so fast. But it’s started to get to the point where I’ve kind of zoned in on who I need to be looking at. So it makes it a lot slower.”

His play on the f ield backs that up. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder has helped lead Springdale to a 5-2 record, its best start since the Bulldogs went 14-0 and won the state championship in 2005.

Chandler had one of his best games of the year at Van Buren, making an impressive return after missing the Siloam Springs game while recovering from a concussion that knocked him out of the Fayetteville game. He threw for 198 yards and a career-high four touchdowns in the 49-21 mercy-rule win over the Pointers.

“He played well,” Springdale coach Shane Patrick said. “He’s continuing to come on. His confidence continues to improve.”

Chandler is completing 55 percent of his passes and has thrown for 769 yards with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions, impressive numbers for a player who spent last fall leading Fayetteville Woodland to a co-conference championship.

A key reason for his success early in his career is his grasp of the playbook, an area he has worked hard at since transferring to Springdale in February.

“He’s got a mental grasp of what’s going on,” Patrick said. “Of course, his physical tools are really good, too. What separates a lot of quarterbacks are their mental ability. He’s still got some progression and things he’s got to get better at, but he’s well ahead of most sophomores’ understanding what’s going on.”

Chandler showed that in the Van Buren game while finding running back Deandre Murray for a 32-yard touchdown pass on a rarely-used route.

“We threw two routes that we hadn’t thrown since this summer,” off ensive coordinator Mark Whatley said. “And he picked it up. All you had to do was throw a key word at him. That long corner that Deandre caught, we hadn’t repped very much.”

Chandler has made a concerted effort to learn the playbook since joining the program, displaying a work ethic that helped him become the first sophomore starting quarterback in Whatley’s eight years at Springdale. Chandler often draws up plays at home to help keep his mind engaged.

“The mental aspect is really my biggest part of the game,” Chandler said. “I try to absorb the playbook as much as possible and just immerse myself in the entire off ense. I just try to keep myself in it so I know every single thing with every single play.”

Springdale moved to 3-1 with the Van Buren win and is positioned to fight for playoff seeding in a tough trio of games against Rogers Heritage, Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber to close the regular season.

“There’s no way to go around it, they’re probably the three biggest games of our season,” Chandler said. “Having an opportunity to have a home playoff game is going to be a big deal, something we haven’t done since 2005. We know that Heritage and Bentonville and Har-Ber are going to be good teams. And we’re just going to have to go in there and compete and play to the best of our abilities. If we do that, we can play with anyone in the conference.”

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