Trey Farley
tlf001@marietta.edu
The Marietta College men’s basketball team is off to a 15-2 start to the season with a similar record to last year’s team that went 28-4 and advanced all the way to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament before being knocked off by Augustana College.
One obvious reason behind the team’s success not only in the past two years but in the past eight years is the man at the helm, Head Coach Jon VanderWal. In his eight years at Marietta, VanderWal has led the Pioneers to a 139-81 record and produced 24 All-OAC athletes, eight All-Great Lakes, and two D-III All Americans. He himself won the 2015 Glenn Robinson award, which is given to the top Division III coach in the nation. But what is it that makes coach VanderWal and his teams so successful?
“We go ten deep” VanderWal told The Marcolian. “I’m going to graduate four guys this year that means next year I have six guys with significant playing time.”
One reason coach VanderWal has been so successful is his ability to recruit players that are able to play as soon as they walk onto campus. Coach VanderWal attributes “selling his program to recruits” and that he has “figured out what the strengths are of Marietta College” as his key ways to get recruits to join his successful program.
Things have not always been easy in Marietta for VanderWal. When he inherited the program the team had only won only a quarter of its games in the past five years and was far from the program it is now. This required a lot of changes; what VanderWal himself called “a grueling process” that involved changing the mindset of the players and the entire culture of the program that has now had two great seasons and is on pace to have another great season.
But this team is not quite as good as last years, and this is due to what VanderWal called “a lack of talent.” However, this year’s team is actually scoring more points per game than last year’s team was at this point in the season. Despite the statistical differences between the teams one thing has remained constant the past few years and that is Coach Jon VanderWal. Aside from the basketball family, he also has a loving wife and two beautiful kids who he devotes his time to. He says that he and his staff dedicate around 100 hours every week solely to basketball, but credits his success to his wife’s love of basketball. VanderWal says you can disregard all of the basketball philosophies and statistics, because his main idea that has led to success is his firm belief that “the quality of your life is dependent on your quality of thoughts.”
