P’burg’s Professor of Pain: Chiulli deals with it, dishes it out

Most football players deal with pain. It’s part of the sport, like kickoffs, first downs, and offside penalties.

But Nolan Chiulli might well be an expert in pain.

Sure, the Phillipsburg senior middle linebacker deals out some pain with every crushing blow he deals to opposition ball carriers.

“Nolan is aggressive at the point of attack and a good tackler,” Stateliner head coach Frank Duffy said. “He really plays down hill.”

Even so, Chiulli has more intimate experience with pain than most.

You see, he’s a lacrosse goalie. Always has been.

“I’ve been playing lacrosse for nine years,” Chiulli said. “Always goalie. I started out my first season, and the youth coaches asked if anybody wanted to play goalie. Me being a young kid, it sounded like a good idea. So I stuck with it.”

That is harder than it sounds. Because pain and playing lacrosse goalie go hand in hand. Lacrosse balls are little bundles of plastic pain -- if you’ve ever been hit by one, you never forget it. A goalie’s job is to stand there and have strong, fast, aggressive attackers hurl those platinum-hard balls at him. Yes, he has a stick. Yes, he has a helmet.

But otherwise …

“Goalies wear less padding than the rest of the players do,” Chiulli said. “Helmet, gloves, chest guard. And a cup, of course.”

Of course.

“You can get hit anywhere in your body,” Chiulli said.

Just why anybody would want to play lacrosse goalie could be a mystery -- it seems as if it would be more fun to chuck the ball at somebody than be on the receiving end -- but to hear Chiulli tell it, it’s almost relaxing.

“Dealing with the pain is a more mental thing than physical,” he said. “It only hurts for as long as you want it to. Once you get the idea it’s going to hurt, then it doesn’t.”

The mental discipline needed to implement that philosophy is formidable, and it is a big reason why the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Lopatcong resident makes such a formidable football player.

“In football, just like lacrosse, specifically at goalie, you know you’re never going to be 100 percent after the first week,” Chiulli said. “At goalie you get hurt all the time. You get on the football field, you’re going to get twisted around. You learn to keep yourself in the game. You learn not to let the pain take over.”

If ever there was a mantra Phillipsburg football could live by, it’s that one. Chiulli and his teammates will do their best to live up to it when they host Franklin (0-3 overall, 0-2 division) in a Big Central Conference Division 5B game Friday (7).

Phillipsburg (1-2, 1-1) has a natural connection between football and lacrosse as offensive coordinator Ian Decker is the head lacrosse coach. That just amplifies the increasing affinity between the sports.

“There are a lot of parallels between football and lacrosse,” Duffy said. “The cutting, the movement, the formations, the toughness level as well. You have the physical aspect of lacrosse, more than in baseball, and I played baseball. We’ve had a history with lacrosse players at middle linebackers -- Nolan, Jacob Hille, the Courys.”

As the SAM linebacker, Chiulli’s job -- this may not come as a surprise -- involves a very intense physical role.

“On the strong side, my role is, nine out of 10 plays, to fill the outside gap and leave the inside gap open,” Chiulli said. “My job is to knock the lead blocker, whether it’s a fullback or a pulling guard, back. On certain plays I get to rush the passer and with an adrenaline rush get a sack.”

Phillipsburg’s 4-4 set features a pair of middle linebackers, and this year it’s, to steal a line from King Crimson, two of a perfect pair.

“I grew up with (mike LB) Stephen (Gural),” said Chiulli, who said he’s been playing football since the “first year of flags”. “We played together at Lopat for years, and we played linebacker together. We have built up a chemistry. We work well together well; we’re both seniors, we both have college ahead, this is the peak of our chemistry.”

When the system works well, Chiulli busts up the play and Gural cleans up.

“Typically Stephen is our leading tackler, and rightfully so,” Duffy said. “The SAM linebacker doesn’t get as many tackles as the mike. Nolan’s at the point of attack, taking on blockers. He has really stepped up at linebacker for us.”

Chiulli made a position switch, indeed side-of-the-ball switch, this season to get that place next to his old friend.

“I played fullback last year,” he said. “My goal coming into the season was to gain weight and be stronger. I wanted to get my reads down and understand offenses better, to get a real understanding of what the opposition does. I hadn’t forgotten how to tackle -- we’re taught the right technique all through middle school, head up, get lower than the ball carrier and put him on his back.”

Phillipsburg’s 1-2 start isn’t ideal, but the defense has been pretty solid. St. Joseph’s-Montvale scored 28 points but only 14 were really on the defense, and Hillsborough only scored 14 in regulation. Then came a shutout last week against Hunterdon Central.

“I think we’ve proven to be a pretty physical defense,” Chiulli said. “We’re from Phillipsburg, we’re expected to hit harder than anybody else. We always want to be in relentless pursuit of the ball, and get 11 helmets on the ball -- that’s our goal every play. Our goal every week is to get more proficient, to dominate like we expect to. We did pretty well last week, and we’re definitely improving.”

One key area of improvement has been takeaways -- none the first two weeks, five against Central.

“Our coaches stress that takeaways win games,” Chiulli said. “If the turnover ratio is negative, you have a slim chance to win the game. If it’s even it’s tough to win. If it’s 2 or 3 in your favor, you have a very high chance of winning the game. We’re always taught the first tackler stands the ball carrier up, the second one rips at the ball. On passing downs, we make sure the level of the defense is there -- I am usually in the short flat -- and we stay in our pass zones to make it hard for the quarterback to read the defense.”

Duffy loves what Chiulli has done so far.

“Nolan doesn’t hesitate, and some of that is from lacrosse, where you can’t hesitate, playing goalie has to be instinctual.” Duffy said. “He attacks with the proper leverage. He’s good in pass coverage. He’s playing fast. In lacrosse, he takes the hits. In football, he has the opportunity to dish it out.”

Chiulli said he wants to play one of his sports in college.

“I love both sports, and I can’t always choose between them,” he said. “I am keeping both options open. I’ll go with whatever opportunity presents itself better.”

Right now, Chiulli and his teammates have an opportunity to have a fine football season.

“The talent is there, and we have great size,” Chiulli said. “To be as good as we can be, we need the full buy-in from everybody on the team, and we have that from most guys, but still few have not bought in yet. When the whole team buys in, it’s a completely different game. We need to go 120 percent every play whether it’s in practice or on a Friday night. We have to want to be the better team, push ourselves to the limit and work through the pain.”

Work through pain -- something Nolan Chiulli knows all about.

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Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com.

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