Lucas: Competition has long fueled the Chenal brothers
April 23, 2019 | Football, Mike Lucas
Their personalities are unique, but siblings John and Leo Chenal share an all-out approach to football
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — On the whistle, John and Leo Chenal slammed into each other in the final matchup of the Badger Drill, also popularly known as the Nutcracker.
A time-honored battle of strength, leverage and resolve, the exercise routinely pits an offensive player versus a defensive player in one-on-one combat.
This particular collision was noteworthy in that it pitted brother vs. brother midway through last Friday's practice at Camp Randall Stadium.
John Chenal, 19, is a 6-foot-2, 252-pound fullback. As a true freshman walk-on, he was a contributor on special teams, appearing in eight games last season. He earned a scholarship for the spring semester.
Leo Chenal, 18, is a 6-2, 239-pound inside linebacker. He was the first player to verbally commit to Wisconsin's 2019 recruiting class. And he's one of the early enrollee freshmen already on campus.
"Probably the biggest thing they have going," said their mother, Brenda Chenal, "is their competition between each other. One pushes the other. It's always one-up."
Who can get "one-up" on the other? Who can gain and sustain the competitive advantage?
"If I beat him, we have to go again," John said. "If he beats me, we have to go again."
"We'll end up playing 10 rounds of ping pong," Leo said, "because he can't handle being beat."
It's no different playing basketball in the driveway.
"We spend hours out there," John said, "because 'the right guy didn't win' type of thing."
Give it your best 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺. Do it for the guy 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. #OnWisconsin
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) April 20, 2019
Their fraternal rivalry extends to normal conversation.
When John mentioned that older brother Adam got him interested in hunting and fishing, Leo interjected, "I'm always in the gym working out, so he's had a little more time to do that stuff."
To which, John said, "I prefer not to sit inside on my phone like Leo. I went out and explored."
And, yet, this competitive streak goes much deeper than some mild trash-talking.
"There's a lot of high-level athletes here who challenge you," John acknowledged. "But there's nothing like your younger brother to really get under your skin to make you want to go that extra mile."
This is the way it has always been for the Chenals, who hail from Grantsburg, Wisconsin, a small community in Burnett County that's 90 minutes northeast of Minneapolis, four-plus hours from Madison.
Grantsburg is billed as the "Gateway to Crex Meadows" — the largest wildlife area in the state.
"Anyone in Madison or Milwaukee has no clue where we are," said Grantsburg High School football coach Adam Hale. "A lot of people love their hunting and fishing up here."
"It's very family-oriented, very traditional, very patriotic, very military-supportive," Brenda said. "When the children come back, they're teachers and have businesses. People stay here and work here."
"There's a bowling alley downtown but we don't have a movie theater, we have to travel 15 minutes for that," John said. "The biggest news around here is maybe a cow getting hit by a car."
(John is the jokester in the family, Brenda says.)
"How would I describe Grantsburg?" he pondered, turning serious. "Everyone knows everyone. It can be a good and bad thing because everyone knows what you do and when you're doing it."
Speaking to the size of the Chenal clan, John kidded, "We make up about half of Grantsburg."
Not quite. Grantsburg has a population of 1,293. But his point was well taken.
David and Brenda Chenal have 16 children.
John and Leo have seven half-brothers and half-sisters. Altogether, it breaks down evenly: eight boys and eight girls. The oldest is 37. The youngest is 10.
Competitive eating was not a sport — it was survival at the Chenal dinner table. "My parents would make a big array of food," John said, "and whoever gets there first, eats."
Since John and Leo left for UW, it has thrown Brenda for a loop. "Now, I'm overcooking and I have leftovers," she sighed. "I was so used to the quantity. And they'd eat it all."
And, yet, it goes much deeper than that.
"You not only have all the siblings scrapping for food," Leo noted, "but you also have all these people that you're in competition with growing up. There's something to be said about having a big family. There are so many people to turn to obviously. And we have each other's back."
Brenda loves hearing that.
"A large family basically trains you and gives you so much experience working problems out," she said. "In dealing with so many different personalities, and so many issues, you learn what to do and what not to do because you're stuck with each other, right? They learned to be versatile and adaptive."
Meanwhile, she learned to be forgiving, especially when the boys were roughhousing indoors.
"It wasn't uncommon for me to have my head in my hands crying, 'I'll never have anything pretty on the table, I can never have anything breakable,'" Brenda recounted. "They were always breaking out in a wrestling match and everything was always broken. I was like, 'Outside.'"
John and Leo chuckled at the remembrances of their household scraps.
"A few broken doors, some walls, windows, reclining chair, couches," John listed. "You name it."
Shrugging, he added, "Just brothers fighting."
"It's healthy," Leo said. "A few bloody noses. Some cracked heads. It's OK."
"Always entertained," John concluded.
So was Brenda watching her two sons grow, mature and earn Division I football scholarships.
"I couldn't be happier as a mother," he said. "They are Wisconsin boys and their loyalty to the state is huge. More important for them, in a sense, they have each other as family. There's nothing more joyful than to watch them having each other's backs and seeing that bond."
Hale saw it right away on the field.
"I saw them play middle school football for Frederic," he said of the village of Frederic in Polk County, 17 miles from Grantsburg. "They were like men among boys. They were breaking off a touchdown every time they touched the ball.
"I didn't think much about them at the time because they were going to another school. All of a sudden, they were transferring to Grantsburg and I saw John with a couple of friends one summer day and he already looked like he was a college athlete. Obviously, they were both terrific for us."
As a prep senior, John attracted some Division II interest from Bemidji State, Morehead State and Mankato State. He wound up verbally committing to North Dakota. "They offered me a scholarship," he recalled, "and I wanted to play football and I wanted some free schooling.'
Leo talked with Iowa and Minnesota before getting and accepting an offer from the Badgers. Soon after, they extended a preferred walk-on invitation to John, who flipped and accepted. "I wanted to stay home," John said. "I wanted to play for Wisconsin and I wanted to play with my brother."
G 💥 💥 D M 💥 R N I N G ❗️ Another week of spring ball down ✔️ Another week closer to kickoff 🔜 #OnWisconsin
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) April 20, 2019
It was during the early recruiting process that John got the scare of his young life. Not that there's much that scares John, who tends to be fearless. But this was different. The Chenals were on a family vacation in Branson, Missouri, an entertainment destination in the Ozark Mountains.
John, Leo and younger brother Gabe (they're each one year apart) were on the water's edge. There had been a lot of flooding in the area, stirring up things, when they came across a snake. "John had a snake as a pet," Brenda said. "He's the northwoods man. There's no fear in John whatsoever."
John reached for the snake, a poisonous Copperhead, and it latched on to his finger. John was rushed to an emergency room and then transferred by ambulance to another hospital. "If it was one of our girls, they probably would have died," Brenda said. "John had his size and body mass going for him."
But the snake bite was so severe, destroying tissue and muscle, that John lost the tip of his index finger on his right hand. Among other things, Brenda said, "His free-throws changed. But after a while, people forgot that he lost a part of his finger because he never let that be a deterrent for him."
On John's recruiting visit to Wisconsin, he purposely looked up tight end Troy Fumagalli, who was born with amniotic band syndrome and had his left index finger amputated shortly after birth. Posing for a snapshot in the locker room, side-by-side, John held out his right hand and Troy his left.
"He wasn't going to let it impact him," Brenda said. "That was his attitude."
A couple of weeks ago, Fumagalli attended a UW practice and saw John Chenal taking a majority of the snaps at fullback. With Alec Ingold's graduation and an injury to likely starter Mason Stokke, he has been trying to take advantage of the increased playing opportunities to make a good impression on the staff.
Leo has been going through a similar earn-your-respect, learn-under-fire scenario. Despite his youth and inexperience, he has been getting consistent work alongside of Mike Maskalunas on the No. 2 defense. Chris Orr and Jack Sanborn have been the first unit at inside linebacker.
On the field, Leo has not been shy about barking out signals and encouraging teammates.
"Even as a youngster, as a sophomore, he was vocal in practice all the time," Hale said. "It was unbelievable. He would have energy every single day, every drill. He was one of those guys you'd point to not just because of his ability but because of his leadership and the way he carried himself."
On the other hand, he said, "John is a little more reserved. He leads more by example."
Although Brenda understands the contrasts between John and Leo — "They're so different personality-wise" — she was quick to point out, "It's interesting because I would say Leo is more shy one-on-one, whereas John is more shy in a crowd and more outward in the smaller settings."
Meanwhile, their respect for each other is the same everywhere, immeasurably so.
"I admire his confidence," Leo said of John. "Obviously, he's a freak on the field and in the gym. But you can go past that and see that he's a strong leader. Everybody in our hometown can see that. He attracts people. It's something about his personality. People want to follow him."
"When he puts his mind to something, he's going to get it done," John said of Leo. "Pure grit is what he has. He's willing to get down and do the dirty work that nobody wants to do. I really admire the grit and determination. When there are obstacles, he just busts right through them."
In late March, Leo posted a video on his Twitter account chronicling one of his many weight room conquests. He benched 225 pounds 32 times. How did John react? "I'm going to make sure I can get more than what he got," he promised. "I have to go for 33."
And you could hear Brenda saying, "It's always one-up, one-up. Just constant competition."
