QB Magazine Athlete Feature
Most quarterbacks, asked to list their goals for the next six months, name skills. Chase Willis names a temperament.
“Being able to stay calm during tough games and not let every little mistake get to me,” the Evergreen Park sophomore said. He wants to read defenses better and clean up his footwork, too — but the list opens and closes with the same idea. It ends: “not let my teammates see my emotions and how they affect me.”
That is an unusually honest thing to write down. Plenty of quarterbacks struggle with the emotional side of the position; very few identify it as their primary offseason project, in writing, for publication.
It also happens to be the correct diagnosis. A quarterback’s frustration is public property — the huddle reads it, the sideline reads it, and eleven people calibrate their own confidence off it. Willis has figured out that managing his face is part of managing his offense.
The Caleb Williams Pick
His favorite professional quarterback is not a coincidence.
“Caleb Williams,” Willis said. “Something I admire most about him is he is coachable, he is able to show his leadership not only during practice but during games. He is calm under pressure, and when he is losing during tough games he is able to stay calm and lead his team to victory. He doesn’t let critics get to him.”
Read that against his own goals and it is nearly the same paragraph. Calm under pressure. Doesn’t let it show. Doesn’t let outside noise land. Willis picked the quarterback who already is what he is trying to become — and, for a kid in the south suburbs of Chicago, one he can watch every Sunday.
He Named the Problem and Fixed It
There is a second answer in his file that shows the same instinct, applied to something technical.
“The challenge I faced was in the beginning of the season last year, I wasn’t able to read defenses and wasn’t able to make the correct read,” Willis said. “I overcame that by focusing on that for my offseason workouts and being able to recognize the different coverages and zones teams play.”
No excuse attached. He could not do something, it cost him early in the year, and he spent his offseason on it specifically. That is the entire problem-solving loop, executed by a fifteen-year-old without anyone prompting him.
It is worth noting who he chose to help with it. Willis trains with Dermot Smyth, a senior quarterback at Illinois Wesleyan University — someone currently living the college version of the job, close enough in age to remember exactly what the high school version felt like.
MVP of a Struggling Offense
The moment he keeps is not a throw. It is a vote.
“The most memorable moment of my football career is winning offensive MVP for my team,” Willis said. “It was one of those years where the offense struggled and they needed someone to take the next step and be the leader of the team.”
That context is what makes it worth telling. Offensive MVP on a high-scoring team goes to whoever put up the numbers. Offensive MVP on an offense that struggled is a different award — it goes to the person who kept the group functioning when the results were not there. He describes it as the year somebody had to step up, and he did.
Which lines up with his definition of the position: leadership, being coachable, communicating with the offensive line, receivers, and running backs, and knowing your responsibilities. Three of those four are about talking to other people.
The Frame
Willis is a Class of 2029 quarterback in his tenth year of football, and the physical picture is worth stating plainly.
He stands 6’2″ and weighs 160 pounds, with a 195-pound bench, a 295-pound squat, a 295-pound deadlift, and a 4.84 forty. That is a legitimate quarterback frame with real length, and at fifteen there is a lot of runway left on it — the strength numbers will move considerably over the next two years, and the height is already there.
He got into the sport because of his dad, who told him about loving the game and the memories that came with it. A decade later, Willis says what he enjoys most is the people.
“The new people you meet playing football and how you are able to create a better bond with teammates,” he said.
His twelve-month goal ends on the same note: build a bigger and better bond with his teammates and his coaches, and be a better person as well as a better quarterback.
For someone whose stated project is keeping his emotions off his face, it is telling that everything he actually wants is about the people looking at it.
Building the Résumé: Why Upgrading Your Membership Matters
Chase has the two things that are hardest to teach — a 6’2″ frame at fifteen, and the self-awareness to name his own weaknesses and go fix them. What a membership adds is reach.
Heading into the fall, an upgraded QB Magazine membership puts a professionally designed athlete graphic and feature placement in front of an audience that extends well past his own following — coaches, trainers, and programs who are actively looking for exactly his profile. A tall sophomore quarterback with room to add weight is precisely the kind of player evaluators want to find early, and coverage is how they find him.
The timing works in his favor. Chase is a sophomore, which means a profile built now has two full seasons to compound before decisions get made. Every game, every camp, and every strength number that moves gets added to a record with history behind it, rather than one assembled in a rush during junior year when everyone else is doing the same thing at once. Those measurables he listed are going to look very different in eighteen months, and having both versions documented is what shows a coach a trajectory instead of a snapshot.
And there is the part that outlasts recruiting. The offensive MVP season on a struggling offense, the offseason he spent teaching himself coverages — those exist either as things Chase tells people, or as something written down with his name on it. A membership makes it the second one.
Explore membership options at quarterbackmagazine.com/memberships.
Instagram: @chase.willi8