By Sara McGinnis
LSU Sports Information
Caroline Vanderpool begins her junior year at LSU and her third soccer season with vigor beaming from the field. A native of Canada, Vanderpool came to LSU with natural talent that cannot be taught and will always be highly respected. She is the type of athlete that could quickly become a household name.
Growing up, Vanderpool lived willingly in her sister’s shadow. She signed up for anything her sister did hoping to find her place in sports. Her soccer career swung into motion at age nine when she took her sister’s spot on an organized team.
“I did whatever my older sister did, a lot of individual sports. A coach kind of recruited my sister to play, but she ended up being too old for his team so I ended up on his team,” said Vanderpool.
In Canada, the only way to get noticed is to play for the national team, so she made sure to do her job by attending camps to get herself noticed by college recruits. The work paid off for the Dollad-de-Ormeaux, Quebec native when she was named a Soccer Buzz Top-20 International Recruit in 2004.
“I did the steps; I e-mailed a lot of schools,” said Vanderpool. “I knew I wanted to go down south, or maybe the west coast, somewhere where there wasn’t a lot of snow.”
LSU was proud to be the lucky chosen school.
Since arriving on the LSU campus not only has she built a reputation as a prominent Tiger athlete, but as an international one as well.
With the Tigers, Vanderpool has started 38 of 41 career games in the midfield, scoring two goals and assisting on eight others. Just a year ago she racked up six assists alone, the fourth most in the SEC that season, and helped the Tiger squad to their first SEC Tournament appearance since 2002.
Internationally, Vanderpool was a member of the Quebec Provincial Team from 2000-04, where she was named the Provincial Defender of the Year in 2001. Her remarkable resume also boosts a silver medal from the Canadian National Championships in 2001 as well as a bronze medal from the 2002 championships.
Most recently Vanderpool has gained valuable experience as a member of the Canadian national team, playing on the U-19 squad in 2004 and participating in the U-20 World Cup in Russia this past August.
While she did not bring home any medals from Russia this summer, she believes she has brought more valuable aspects back with her.
“I might have lost a bit of fitness, but I definitely gained experience in thinking more,” said Vanderpool. “I don’t regret anything because I know I gave 110 percent, I worked as hard as I could.”
Now in her junior season at LSU, Vanderpool brings that experience and knowledge back with her to work with her team and coaches.
Vanderpool portrays intense passion in the game which she attributes to her coach, Brian Lee. She believes that when a coach is as well respected as he is, the team will work even harder not only for their own benefit, but for the coaches as well.
“Brian has completely changed everything for me,” said Vanderpool. “The coaches put in their fair share of work and you want to work hard for them. I think we are going to do really well this year and they deserve all the wins we are going to get.”
Currently a midfielder on the Tiger squad, Vanderpool has not played there her entire career. She played as a forward in her early days, then moved to defender for the Canadian team, before settling in as a midfielder with LSU.
“I like it a lot,” said Vanderpool on her most current position. “Midfields have to work hard; I like the idea of controlling the play and distributing the ball.”
Vanderpool, now in her 13th season of competitive soccer, is pumped with momentum and determination. She and her teammates have been working hard through camps and tournaments to improve on last season’s overall record of 8-10-2. Vanderpool’s voice is filled with confidence as she talks about the upcoming SEC schedule.
“We have been improving steadily,” said Vanderpool. “We definitely have a chance to win the SEC West and we might surprise a few teams.”
Driven to succeed on the field, one might think Vanderpool sights would already be set on a professional career, but the political science major will tell you otherwise.
“I thought about it just for a couple of months maybe going to France, but I definitely want to go to law school…I have been playing for a long time and I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot going to a world championship, which was one of my main goals,” said Vanderpool. “But I think now I can move on to other things and not be disappointed. I want to finish my university and help LSU reach its goals.”
Luckily for LSU its got two more years to see just how high she can take them.