Get To Know Your Coach - Sydney VanderHoef

When Sydney VanderHoef looks back on her unique two-sport athletic career, there are challenging training moments that immediately come to mind. The Kitchener product primarily excelled on the pitch, though she also developed a deep love of basketball. VanderHoef played hoops at Woodland Christian High School in Breslau, where renowned local coach Stu Julius led the team.

Julius was unapologetic about working his players hard. Not out of spite, but to prepare them – both physically and mentally.

“We would be walking to the line to do sprints after a really hard session, and Stu would gently call out to us, ‘Remember why I do this,’” VanderHoef recalls. “We would all mumble back, ‘Because you care.’

“That little joke enabled him to push us in a way that we could not push ourselves individually. And even if you were mad at him in the moment, you realized there was a bigger picture, and you appreciated it afterwards.”

Those teaching moments have had a huge impact on VanderHoef as a coach. She’s now a full year removed from her career at the U of G, where she played varsity soccer and basketball, while completing a degree in Human Kinetics. One of her most important current projects is leading the Guelph Soccer Academy’s U16 girls’ team for the upcoming 2024/25 season.

Like Julius, and many of the other coaches who have given guidance in her life, VanderHoef cares.

It was evident early on as a kid. With Dutch roots and three competitive brothers, VanderHoef never lacked energy while playing seven years of youth soccer in Cambridge. By the time she hit her teen years, soccer was a priority, and she knew she wanted a future in the game. Her youth team in Cambridge folded and VanderHoef moved on to play in the Ontario Player Development League with a side based in Hamilton.

“At that point, I knew I wanted to push on with it,” she says. “A lot of girls on that team stopped playing, but that wasn’t really an option for me.”

VanderHoef picked up hoops in grade 9, when she first met Julius. He encouraged his player to pursue both sports, and by the end of high school, VanderHoef saw the U of G as the perfect fit to make that happen. She played four years in the Gryphon midfield, under Coach Shayne Campbell, who knew VanderHoef from her youth soccer days.

She was technically a walk-on with the basketball team, unable to make the initial tryouts because it was in the thick of the Gryphons’ soccer schedule. Both Campbell and basketball coach Mark Walton worked in concert to make sure VanderHoef could balance the two sports, as well as her Human Kinetics academic schedule.

It gave her an incredible perspective as both a player and in turn, as a coach. Team hierarchy and the way in which leaders communicate to the group became points of emphasis.

“The cool thing is that I had double the captains and coaches to learn from,” says VanderHoef. “There are definitely differences within the sports, including the coaching approaches.”

“As a coach, I like to be able to understand what the players are going through. I won’t always understand everything, but I need captains that are going to not just tell me what I want to hear. They have to communicate what’s actually going on within the team. A lot of varsity programs do that well, and I think it’s huge to try and draw on that with youth teams.”

VanderHoef believes team leaders are critical. In Gryphon soccer, she listened to her captain Victoria Hinchliffe, who like VanderHoef, is pursuing a B license as the two former teammates embark on their coach training together. Burke Bechard and Skyla Minaker were captains on the Gryphon hoops team and helped the walk-on guard transition to the court when her soccer season was done in playbook and practice sessions.

Playing both sports also gave her perspective on team roles. In soccer, VanderHoef was always one of the better athletes and a leader, while in basketball, she was more of a role player. It was enlightening and helped shape her coaching skills as she prepares to lead the Academy’s U16 girls.

“It all starts with the grassroot side of things,” says VanderHoef, who has kept playing competitively with Guelph United. “You can’t just suddenly have pro level players. I have seen the gaps as a player, and trying to push it along on the youth side is important. Coaches can get caught up on things like game analysis, tactics, and changing formations. But with a young group, they don’t need all of that yet. You can give them a little taste of it, but you have to balance things and meet them in terms of where they’re at in their development.

“We now have a bunch of players who are extremely talented, with unique skills. It’s about bringing everything together, and not just by me dictating it, but for them to understand how the pieces fit. We want to build a framework that doesn’t limit creativity or add restraints. They can grow from that framework and actually have more freedom to do things. Especially with this age group, it’s important to emphasize that none of us are perfect. That’s why we need to have a structure that we can rely upon for that moment when one of us isn’t perfect.”

Equally important to VanderHoef is being a strong female figure for her players. She knows that more female coaches will make a big difference in women’s athletics, particularly in encouraging girls to keep playing and potentially to coach.

“We’ve seen it with the pro league,” VanderHoef says. “There are still a number of male coaches involved with the women’s pro league. There just aren’t a lot of options for women who have the same experience as men.

“We’re trying to push it along.”

--------------------

Written by: David DiCenzo