Wharton junior does it all
By Kyle LoJacono
Chase Litton’s 6-foot-6 frame is a common sight for fans of Wharton athletics.
The junior has been the quarterback for the Wildcats football team since halfway through his freshman season, the same year he stepped into the starting lineup as a forward for Wharton’s basketball squad.
“For me, football is more of a passion game,” Litton said. “It takes a week of preparation to play one team. With basketball you have to just jump in and play. Football is a lot more stress because you have to focus on that one team and the defenses they run. In basketball you have to just know the plays and execute regardless of the team. … Basketball is just fun. I play it because I love it. I love the coaches and the players. For me, it’s like a stress release.”
His outlook on each sport is opposite, but the results for the Wildcats have been the same — success.
Litton has the program record for career passing yards, which stands at 5,510, while also setting the single-game mark with 404 set as a junior in the Class 8A regional quarterfinals at Orlando Dr. Phillips. The signal caller has thrown 41 touchdowns in his career while adding another six scores on the ground and 401 yards rushing.
Wharton is 18-15 since Litton joined the squad, a stretch that includes two playoff appearances.
Litton’s junior campaign was by any statistical measure his finest, setting career-highs in passing yards (2,732), passing touchdowns (23) and rushing scores (four), while guiding the Wildcats to an 8-3 record.
Litton said the game started slowing down for him in his third year as a starter.
“My freshman year I jumped right into play Tampa Bay Tech as my first start, and the speed was just crazy,” Litton said. “I felt like I was the slowest one on the field. I didn’t really know defenses; I didn’t know reads, and then my sophomore year I went out there and was just playing. This year I felt like I was so much more focused. I put more time and effort into it because I knew if I did that I could control the game just by myself. I could slow it down and hit the open receiver. The game was just so much easier.”
When the season ended at Dr. Phillips, Litton immediately switched into basketball mode.
“Stepping right in from football each year is quite a testament to his athleticism and hard work,” said Wharton basketball coach Tommy Tonelli. “When they lost on a Friday night to Dr. Phillips he was the first guy at practice on Saturday. He had one more practice before our first regular season game against IMG Academy, and he didn’t miss a beat.”
Litton said Tonelli has been understanding about splitting time between the gridiron and the hard court.
“He tells me during football season I can just focus on that, and then when it’s basketball season I can just focus on basketball,” Litton said.
Litton has helped the 18-2 Wildcats climb to the top of the Class 8A-District 7 standings. He is averaging 11.5 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds through the first 19 games.
Teammate Sir Patrick Reynolds said Litton’s work has helped propel the basketball squad to its fast start.
“My main man Chase, he’s very athletic,” said Reynolds, a senior forward/guard. “He goes to work every day, and he never lets up. He’s always coming through big for us.”
Litton said balancing football and basketball with school and the rest of his life isn’t very hard, as he’s been doing it since picking up the games at age 6. What is more difficult is staying in the right frame of mind.
“For football I have to stay calm, cool and collected,” Litton said. “I can’t go out there all hyped up because I’ll overthrow passes or get too jittery and fumble. For basketball it’s the opposite mentality. It’s more high tempo the whole time while you run the play.”
The traits of his positions are also very different.
As a quarterback, Litton sets up others to score touchdowns. As a forward, it’s his role to be that scorer, while senior point guard CJ McGill gives him the assists.
“I like having CJ being the quarterback and I’m the receiver,” Litton said. “It’s the exact opposite from football when I’m making the passes for other guys to score.”
Litton said his focus is playing football in college and has several of the top programs in the country interested in him.
“Florida called me the other day,” Litton said. “I’ve been talking with LSU, Georgia and I’m getting a lot of handwritten mail from Alabama. I mean like literally every day from Alabama. That’s really cool. Then I get a lot of stuff for basketball from Florida State, which is pretty cool, and if it comes down to two schools I might want to play both sports. Right now my focus is football for college except during basketball season. I’m all about this team right now.”
Litton and the Wildcats play at district rival Alonso Jan. 22 and at cross-town rival Freedom Jan. 23. Both games start at 8 p.m.
—Follow Kyle LoJacono on Twitter: @Kyle_Laker
