Player Spotlight: Patrick Chapman

We’re starting a weekly series to spotlight Players, Alumni, and Trustees of the London Dragons. We will start off with articles about who we are, where we’ve played, our time in London and what’s next for our members. As we progress, we’ll also be expanding into Instagram ‘Takeovers’ where you can follow along with a day in the life of a Dragon, either as a student in London or wherever they’ve ended up after completing their degree in the UK.

Our first spotlight is one of our favorite defensemen and general pot-stirrer Patrick Chapman. Chapman joined the team in the 2024-2025 season and immediately became one of the standout players both on and off the ice. He led our defensemen in points with 4 goals and 7 assists for a total of 11 points in 15 games (0.73ppg). In Chapman’s alumni year, 2025-2026, he has taken the lead of our defensemen again and is 4th on the team in points with 4 goals and 4 assists in 4 games (2.00ppg). Check out the new and improved player pages on the BUIHA website!

For those readers who might be unaware of the eligibility rules of British Universities Ice Hockey, players are given 1 extra year of eligibility after they’ve finished their degrees. Unlike university programs in places like the United States, UK programs are shorter with bachelor’s level programs running only 3 years, master’s programs only 1 year, and PhD programs (generally) 3 years (with possible extensions). The short duration of degrees can lead to extreme turnover in clubs, particularly in places like London where our universities accept 50-60% international students (with some accepting as many as 80%). The alumni year gives teams an opportunity to keep players around juuust a little longer to help bolster numbers year after year.

Chappy is one of our international students, originally from Washington DC, in the US. He came to London to complete an MSc in Political Science and Political Economy at the London School of Economics which he successfully finished in September of this year (when UK year-long masters end for our international readers).

Before coming to London, Chappy ran the operational side of a small baseball team back in the US, after successfully completing his degree at George Mason University. George Mason was also Chappy’s last team, part of ACHA Division 1 where he played 4 seasons. Patrick’s hockey career started far before his time in university at the age of 5 (something we’ll see in common with most of our A Team players). He continued to play AA, AAA, and USHS before his time in the ACHA and now the BUIHA.

Off the ice, Chappy has been a staple in bringing players together. He quickly fell in love with one of our team’s favorite ‘dive bar’s’, Passyunk Ave (also where he helped organize our annual Christmas party). It’s a great bar, not only because they have American classics, but also because they play any and all sports. Chapman’s time in London, although academically focused and successful, can really be marked by his love of sports.

Many students will come to London and use it as a home base for the year while jetting off to various major tourist locations, barely experiencing all that London has to offer. Not Chappy. Chapman dove head-first into the world of London sports and has brought his teammates with him. He regularly attends Chelsea football matches, cricket matches at the Oval, rugby matches, and all sorts of other sports at various levels.

What’s next for Patrick Chapman?

Since Patrick has completed his degree, he has the rest of this year of eligibility with the team and the next 2 years (potentially) in London as part of the Graduate Scheme. We always want to keep our players around to keep our community thriving and diverse.

Patrick is actively looking for work in London and wants to continue living and working here. He is interested in consulting and policy work and is open to any connections or networking with our alumni or readers of our articles!

If you'd like to connect with Patrick Chapman, please find his LinkedIn page here!

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At the bottom of every article we'll also include links to all of our web pages and our forms. As always, please help us in our journey to reinvigorate the Dragons after UoL cut all sports!

• If you were on the Dragons, please help us keep in touch with our Alumni Contact Update form!