Most athletic programs train during the summer, but this year the Aubrey Chaparrals football program took it to another level with their offensive and defensive linemen competing in the Big Body Business’ 2026 LineMAN Challenge on Saturday.
Aubrey sent 13 linemen to the event hosted at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, where they competed against 22 other 4A schools and left the event with a Top 10 finish.
“I can’t put into words how proud I was of these guys for deciding we are going to give up their weekend during the summer, travel three hours in the summer, and go compete, but that’s exactly what they did,” Aubrey line coach Derrick Gonzalez said. “We finished tied for seventh out of 23, and we were extremely competitive in every event that we were involved in, with multiple events being less than half a second away from climbing up the leaderboard even more, [and] that’s indicative of the fight and tenacity of this team.”
The skills competition tests the athletes' individual speed, strength and agility along with testing their ability to work together with various events, including pushing a sled, an obstacle course, flipping a tractor tire, pushing an 8,000-pound truck, tug of war and farmer’s walk.
Gonzalez added that this new form of skills competition provided a great chance for the position group to improve during the offseason.
“We wanted to [highlight] the talents of our guys that do the dirty work on Friday nights,” he said. “The skill positions have a great way to showcase their abilities and stay sharp using 7-on-7 during the spring and summer, so this was a way to keep our guys in the trenches competing and representing Aubrey.”
Aubrey senior lineman P.J. Van Rijn echoed his coach’s sentiments on the benefits of the LineMAN Challenge.
“It was a good break for us because once football and track are over for linemen, it's usually just working out and skills training until August comes around,” he said. “We didn’t have anything like 7-on-7 to sharpen our skills, so this definitely gave us an opportunity to do something other than just getting up to work out every day.'
The Chaps first punched their ticket to Abilene after winning the state qualifying event at McKinney High School with eight participants— Stephen Coffman, Riley DuFrene, Gavin Austin, Christian Austin, Van Rijn, Brayden Wood, Blake Wheeler and Charles Mulkey—on May 30.
“It was all a learning experience for sure because we had never done any of that stuff before, except bench [press], but, overall, it was a great opportunity for us … especially for team bonding,” senior offensive lineman Wood said. “That’s a big thing, and I’ve spent more time around these guys just doing the LineMAN Challenge than I have probably the whole time during the summer.”
Five more Chaps—Jayson Melzer, Fega Odoghoro, Isaac Gomez, Mario Quiroz and Drew Dondelinger—joined the team for the state championship at Hardin Simmons University on Saturday, where they tied for seventh overall and set the fastest time in the truck push with a time of 18.3 seconds.
The Chaps also finished second in the tire flip event with a time of 46.05 seconds and fourth in the Flipsled Flip with a time of 52.25 seconds.
“It was really cool because we set a standard for the younger guys coming up,” Wheeler said. “Even in-season the skill positions get more looks and whatnot, but the games are won in the trenches, so it’s cool that we could put ourselves out there, compete and see ourselves on ‘Blodel Graham,' which is where Coach [Dana] Blodel posts.”
With their first season of competition behind them, Gonzalez said the group is already looking forward to next year.
“I told the guys at the end of the competition that this was just the beginning of a yearly reservation Aubrey will be making at this event,” he said. “At the end of the day what I love about this group is that they are competitors in everything they do, and this was no exception, and hopefully, every year we climb up that leaderboard and start bringing home some hardware.”
