The Carpool That Sent Rachael Vanderwal to the Olympics
Canada never called. Great Britain did.
Rachael Vanderwal grew up in a Canadian hockey family and never got a look from her own national team. At London 2012, she played point guard for the host nation.
“The Olympics was insane. In the dining hall and Michael Phelps could be sitting next to you, then you see Usain Bolt walking in the village. The opening ceremony was a highlight as we were the home nation, coming in last with the royal family waving,” said Vanderwal.
Working out Rachael Vanderwal’s lifetime carbon footprint would involve a great deal of math and undoubtedly prove eye popping.
The easy way of putting it is that she’s circumnavigated the planet a few times more than most but is now firmly settled in Melbourne, Australia, where she and her wife Eilidh have started a coaching business called Nextplay Hoops.
“It’s been off the ground for about two months now. We felt there weren’t any female skills trainers where we are. It was all male dominated and we felt there was definitely a market. We want to share our knowledge and experience with others, starting with beginners and help them get to an elite level,” said Vanderwal.
The road to Melbourne ran through a second-tier Irish club, a long carpool and a coach with the right connection.
Experience is something Vanderwal and her wife have no shortage of. Having grown up in Hamilton, Canada, she saw her career take her to the US, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and, most notably, the Olympics.
Hockey country
Of course, growing up in Ontario in the 1990s, it’s not like basketball was the dominant sport in the ice hockey-mad region.
“My family didn’t know what basketball was at all, we were an ice hockey and figure skating family. My best friend got me into it and her dad was a representative team coach, so when I was 12 I joined that and never looked back,” she said.
Considering the current golden era Canada is enjoying in basketball, with the Raptors winning a championship, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander winning NBA MVP back to back, and Toronto getting its own WNBA team, it’s easy to understate how big a deal it was at the time when Vanderwal went to play for Boston University.
“Not a lot of people did it when I was doing it. It was few and far between. I had played a few tournaments in the States and that’s where I got seen. I was fortunate because, at that time, college coaches weren’t coming to Hamilton to look at players,” she said.
Ireland, of all places
Despite being somewhat of a trailblazer, Vanderwal never got on the radar for the Canada National Team properly. That was a sliding doors moment.
Instead of Canada, her path ran through Ireland.
“Kelly Greenberg, my coach at Boston University, her brother Chip had played in Ireland and I told her that I wanted to keep playing. Donoughmore, of all places, gave me the call,” said Vanderwal.
Donoughmore at the time was playing in the second tier of the Irish league. Vanderwal studied at Cork Institute of Technology (now MTU) while there and had to work a second full-time job while playing. She did two years there, winning back-to-back league and cup doubles in the second tier.
Along with her teammates, she essentially put together her own team to play in the top-flight in Ireland under the banner of a club called Iona. Then came the dominant streak with a move to the UL Huskies.
In four seasons, she won four regular season titles in Ireland, three national cups, three playoff titles, and three season MVPs. More importantly, UL set the course for the rest of her career and her life.
“I was teaching PE in Cork at the time and it was a tough commute but three of us carpooled. I was just enjoying life in my 20s, playing basketball and didn’t really think beyond that,” she said.
“James Weldon, my coach at UL, was backing me the whole time. He knew someone on the coaching staff of Great Britain and they were looking for another point guard to come into camp.”
That carpool mattered more than she knew. Without UL and Weldon, there may have been no Olympics, no pro career in Spain and no Eilidh.
Great Britain comes calling
Due to her mother having been born in Liverpool, Vanderwal was entitled to a British passport and started playing for Great Britain in 2010. Over the course of the next 12 years she packed a lot in.
Within two years, she’d play for them at the London 2012 Olympics.
“That gave me the bump to go fully pro with Gernika, where I played two seasons. I loved my time there, I spent two seasons there, then on to Zaragoza, then Ferrol before coming back to Gernika for my fifth year there. The lifestyle and the culture was amazing, it was cheap with good weather,” she said.
Over 12 years as an international player, Vanderwal earned 118 caps for the GB national team, won silver at the Commonwealth Games with England in addition to that Olympic appearance, and met her future wife.
“We first played together in 2014 at the Commonwealth and got together in 2017. I was lucky as I had it in my contract that I could leave the club early to play in 2014. It was crazy, I flew to Australia from Spain and was late joining the team,” she said.
“I would never have dreamt of playing for GB or England growing up. It was always in the back of my head but I never thought I’d get to that level.”
A torn ACL and a new start
A stop in Belgium followed her Spanish stint but, by that stage, Vanderwal was thinking beyond the on-court situation when it came to basketball. Being in a relationship with a fellow pro naturally meant she wanted to be near Eilidh.
Injury, of all things, created that opportunity.
“We had the Olympic qualifiers that were supposed to be in China but got moved because of Covid. That got moved to Istanbul. It was three games in four days. I flew back the Tuesday to Belgium. We had a EuroCup game the Saturday night and I tore my ACL. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have played.”
That was weeks before the world shut down.
With her season over already, Vanderwal flew back to Canada. While recovering, she got the opportunity to join Eilidh the following season in Germany at the GISA Lions.
“I didn’t play that season so I went over as soon as I could with the restrictions. I spent the season rehabbing with her and doing a bit of coaching with her before the team signed us both for the following season,” she said.
Vanderwal ran the point and Eilidh played shooting guard, so they shared a backcourt as well as a home.
“It was a lot, going to work together every day and then going back to the house. It was also amazing because we’d spent so much time apart. We’d been playing in different countries each season and Covid kept us apart for seven months,” she said.
“Just to have that time to live together properly for the first time was pretty cool. That meant we realised we wanted to do this. That led to us moving to Australia.”
Life Down Under
Eilidh is still playing but Vanderwal retired after that last year in Germany. It was a decision Vanderwal was happy with. They got married in 2022 and Scottie, their daughter, arrived in 2024.
“I always wanted kids. Nothing prepares you for how busy it is. It’s a lot of fun and the best thing that happened to us,” she said.
Still, she feels the connection to Canada and is thrilled to see the sport thriving back home. Vanderwal is hopeful the arrival of the Toronto Tempo in the WNBA will inspire youngsters.
“How cool is that? It’s amazing. Temi Fagbenle, our GB teammate is playing for Toronto. It has definitely put basketball on the map for females now. I can’t wait to go home, to go to a game and bring Scottie with us,” she said.