Alumni News: Chris Vandenberg ('05)

Sometimes serious injuries prevent high profile basketball recruits from ever making the impact that their college coaches had hoped they would make. Below is a pair of articles on Cornell alum, Chris Vandenberg ('05). Once a highly recruited post player, Vandenberg's chronic injuries kept him off the court for most of his Cornell Basketball career.

Cornell Frosh Brings Work Ethic to Court Chris Vandenberg Hones His Basketball Skills Between Chores on a Canadian Farm

By Pete Thamel
Syracuse Post Standard
November 29, 2001

Somedays, when one of his labs runs late, Cornell center Chris Vandenberg dashes onto the practice floor with a distinct smell trailing him.

No, it isn't body odor from a workout or because he forgot to shower that day.

"Say lab goes until 4:30 and practice starts at 4:30," Vandenberg explains. "You come in a little late and you might smell a little like the barn. My teammates get on me a little bit about that."

"Lab" in the agriculture program at Cornell cancels all stereotypical images of a Bunsen burner and goggles. Vandenberg, a 6-foot-10 freshman, majors in animal science and has already examined a horse heart, liver and kidney in his first semester.

"They bring in one big honking heart," Vandenberg said. "They prepare it and everything for you. It's just right there on a plate for you. You put on your gloves and you dig right in."

When Cornell comes to the Carrier Dome for a 7 p.m. date with the No. 12 Orangemen tonight, Vandenberg will face a big honking challenge against the Orangemen's athletic front line.

A classic late bloomer on the basketball floor, Vandenberg received scholarship offers from Richmond, Utah State and Illinois State.

But Vandenberg, whose teammates call him "Air Canada," grew up on a 200-acre, 100-cow dairy farm in rural Ontario and wanted to study agriculture. So, Vandenberg spurned the higher profile suitors to enroll in Cornell's prestigious agriculture program, where the chickens outnumber the students 5,000 to 3,000.

And on the basketball floor, just like in lab, Vandenberg has dug right in.

He blocked seven shots in Cornell's opener against Canisius and has provided an athletic frontcourt presence for the Big Red (0-3). While Vandenberg is still raw offensively, second-year Big Red head coach Steve Donahue considers him an integral part of his rebuilding effort at Cornell.

"The best thing about Chris is that if he was 6-foot-6, he'd be a good basketball player," Donahue said.

Considering he has only played serious basketball since the end of 11th grade, Vandenberg's progress can be considered nothing downwind of remarkable.

Vandenberg grew up near Harley, Ontario, on his family's dairy farm. Near the feed room, amid the five red barns and between the two looming silos, Vandenberg shot baskets on a cement pad.

At Burford High School, Donahue remembers watching Vandenberg play in a "grammar school gymnasium."

When Richmond head coach John Beilein traveled to watch Vandenberg play, he said there were more players on the floor than there were fans in the gym.

"They didn't even have the bleachers pulled out," Beilein said. "I had to climb up to the top and sit on them."

The rural setting also didn't provide the most telling competition, as both Donahue and Beilein said there wasn't another player on the floor taller than 6-foot aside from Vandenberg.

"I'm not to my peak potential yet," Vandenberg said. "But I've gotten one hundred times better since I've got here."

Cornell senior Wallace Prather said Vandenberg's potential in the Ivy League is unlimited.

"He can be league player of the year by the time he graduates," Prather said. "If not in two years."

Vandenberg is averaging 6.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and three blocks per game for the Big Red so far this year.

He credits much of his improvement since high school to the Cornell coaching staff and his part on the Canadian Junior National Team, which finished sixth at the World University Games this summer in Beijing.

As he matures and his statistics balloon, Vandenberg is expected to elevate the young Big Red, which went 7-20 last season, including 3-11 in the Ivy League.

Already, Donahue said he's giving 130 of a possible 200 game minutes to freshmen and sophomores, which is indicative of the talent leap in the program. Donahue, a former Penn assistant, knows there's a long way to go to catch the Quakers and Princeton at the top of the Ivy.

Donahue has adopted the phrase "Create the Future" for a program whose fate will likely rest in the hands of a kid who's not afraid to work with his.

"The best thing about farm life," said Vandenberg, "is that you learn to work until the job is done."

Every day before school, Vandenberg woke up at 7 a.m. and fed the cows or finished whatever odd chore needed completing. His work ethic meshes perfectly with what needs to be done to turn around a program that has averaged just over 10 wins the past five seasons.

"I'm a hands on guy," Vandenberg said. "I don't like sitting in a classroom pushing a pencil."

Vandenberg's career derailed by injuries

By LaMond Pope
The Ithaca Journal
February 25, 2005

ITHACA -Cornell men's basketball coach Steve Donahue envisioned building his program around Chris Vandenberg.

A 6-foot-10 center from Harley, Ontario, Vandenberg possessed the size, enthusiasm and feel for the game Donahue loved. He displayed those skills in his first collegiate game, blocking seven shots against Canisius on Nov. 16, 2001.

But on the eve of the Big Red's fourth game of the season, Vandenberg dislocated his left kneecap during the final minutes of practice.

His career was never the same.

Vandenberg missed the rest of his freshman season, but returned midway through his sophomore year to play 12 games before shutting it down with another knee injury.

Though he attempted several comebacks during the past two seasons, Vandenberg never played again.

"For this level, he was a big-time athlete," Donahue said. "He played three college games (as a freshman), and you could see it after those. And then the injury happens.

"The pain and agony of trying to come out on the court for four years and never really ever getting it back (must have been) extremely frustrating for him. But he never showed that, never showed the guys. He has always been supportive."

Vandenberg will be honored along with fellow seniors Cody Toppert and Eric Taylor before Saturday's home finale against Princeton.

Vandenberg can't remember how many operations he's had on his left knee (he said it's either five or six). Each time he felt like he was close to making a return, there was another "freak" accident. Still, his attitude never changed.

"My attitude is you can't sit around and mope about it. You have to stay active," Vandenberg said. "If you have to rehab, rehab, and if you can't rehab, then wait. Every time something would happen, but I wouldn't let that faze me. Now, I'm at point, I can't come back. Maybe it wasn't meant to be."

Vandenberg thought of making one final comeback attempt. But following a cartilage transfusion last summer and several discussions with his doctors, his father, Albert, and Donahue, he decided his playing days were over.

His comeback attempts touched all of his teammates.

"There were a number of times he tried to come back from surgeries," senior captain Eric Taylor said. "He never gave up, he always kept hope. That's something I look up to him for."

Vandenberg hasn't ventured too far from the team. This year, he's provided radio commentary for Cornell, and has traveled to most of the games. He's also always around at practice, providing tips to some of the team's younger centers.

His final stat line reads 15 games played, but Donahue said that doesn't begin to describe the mark he left on the team.

"I am so glad he came here and I got the opportunity to coach him," Donahue said. "Even though he hasn't produced like he would have hoped on the court, it has nothing to do with what he brought to the program."