‘High Talent, Hight Trust’ – VanBrandt Sets Hoosier Tone
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Aly VanBrandt waits for it -- a pitch to hit, to drive, to knock in a run. Opportunity arrives as a brisk northwest wind delivers a cool bite to high-50s temperatures, pushing clouds to cover and uncover sunshine at Andy Mohr Field.
Indiana’s do-it-all junior second baseman faces a key fourth-inning Saturday moment against Illinois. The Hoosiers trail 3-1 and Illini pitcher Megan Neuchterlein has quieted their potent offense.
That’s about to change and the left-handed-hitting VanBrandt is a catalyst.
She takes a pitch over the plate and drives it to center field for a single, knocking in the first of what becomes a four-run inning that helps deliver a 7-3 series-clinching victory.
Throughout the game, throughout every game in a 41-win regular season, VanBrandt radiates passion, enthusiasm and energy, which is what you’d expect from a player who personifies IU’s renowned player development program.
“You take somebody who has the tools and takes massive action to take advantage of every resource she has,” coach Shonda Stanton says, “and you see a big difference and a big improvement.”
VanBrandt was All-Big Ten as a freshman (hitting .369 with 33 runs scored and 17 runs batted in) and has improved every year since. This season, while hitting leadoff, she leads the Hoosiers in batting average (.404), runs (63), triples (seven) and stolen bases (24), all career highs. She’s second in home runs (14) and third in RBI (59), also career highs. Not bad for a once lightly recruited prospect despite Miss Michigan high school accolades on her resume.
“It’s continuing to work hard,” VanBrandt says about her yearly improvement.
“If you do that, you will naturally progress. Everybody here cares a lot. When you have that, when a lot of people are pouring into you and you use that, you’re going to improve.”
Stanton credits VanBrandt’s gym-rat mentality and willingness to capitalize on all available resources, of which Indiana has many.
“College is like a smorgasbord, whether you’re a student or an athlete, and you have all these choices, all these options,” Stanton says. “Aly takes full advantage. She hits everything on the smorgasbord except desert.
“It doesn’t matter if you talk to the strength coach or the dietician or athletic personnel. You don’t have to worry about her in the weight room, academically, socially. She uses her resources, her work ethic.”
Coaches deal with high-maintenance, low-maintenance and no-maintenance players. Stanton equates it to talent and trust, and few have more of both than VanBrandt.
“Aly has high talent, high trust. Maybe coming out of high school it started as middle-of-the-road talent and high trust, but that talent turned into elite because of her high trust. She’s in that elite category of high trust/high talent, which is pretty cool.”
VanBrandt is a big reason, although certainly not the only one, why IU has won five straight games and 15 of its last 18; why it’s compiled a 41-13 record, 17-7 in the Big Ten, earned a No. 4 seed in this week’s conference tourney at Maryland and positioned itself for a program-record-extending fourth straight NCAA tourney appearance.
She’s enjoying every minute of it.
“I love that softball is a team sport, and you don’t have to perform every time you’re up to bat, especially on this team because we have so many great hitters. I love that you get to be close to your teammates. They are there to pick you up and you’re there to pick them up.”
There’s no reason to delay setting a tone and VanBrandt doesn’t, smacking a first-inning Sunday home run to center field to propel IU to its second straight 7-3 win over Illinois and complete its three-game sweep.
VanBrandt, once a self-proclaimed “slap hitter,” is now a power-speed combination player.
VanBrandt’s 14 home runs trail only catcher Avery Parker’s 19 on the team. Her 24 steals in 27 attempts are six more than any other Hoosier. Plus, when necessary, she can bunt for a base hit.
“I’ve always been pretty fast,” she says. One of my goals has been to add more strength, add more muscle. I’ve just kept my speed and improved my strength.”
She’s also changed her mindset.
“I used to be a slapper and hit for contact,” she says. “When I first started here, I was just trying to get on base. Now I’m not just trying to hit to make contact. I’m trying to hit it hard. I’m trying to do more damage than just making it to first.”
VanBrandt does this while rarely striking out. Her 12 strikeouts in 183 at bats are second best on the team to Cassidy Kettleman’s eight in 108.
“I’ve always had the ability to make contact with the ball well,” she says. “That’s part of it. My confidence to swing hard and still make contact has gotten better.”
The result, Stanton says is a “full athlete when you look at speed and power combo. She’s the 1 percenter. She’s the CEO of the (gym) rats when it comes to speed and power. They all work hard and work together, but she’s the CEO of the rats.”
Under Stanton, IU has developed a renowned strength-training program that delivers power-hitting success, but only if players fully buy in.
VanBrandt has.
“She had the hand-eye coordination and the tools with being a slapper,” Stanton says. “Then you look at the weight room, how she fuels, how she gets her sleep, how she takes care of her body. She does whatever it takes in every one of those areas to be successful.”
Then Stanton dives in deeper.
“In the weight room, you can come in during the season and say you work hard. It’s a great culture, everyone in there is working hard, being efficient and disciplined. But it’s really the offseason and the summers, the winters that make a different. Aly doesn’t cheat it and it shows.”
As for the speed with that power, Stanton adds, “She was a speed kid coming in and she’s developed the power. That’s easier to do than take a power kid and make them a speed kid.”
When it comes to stolen bases, VanBrandt runs mostly at Stanton’s direction.
“She knows what situations I should be stealing,” VanBrandt says. “Sometimes, if I’ll see a pitch in the dirt, I’ll go, but a lot of times it’s her telling me to steal.”
It’s working for her and all the Hoosiers. They lead the conference with 128 steals, 50 more than second-place Purdue.
“I’d steal her more,” Stanton says, “but as much as we’re hitting the ball (IU’s .353 team average is second in the Big Ten to UCLA’s .386), I’m trying to conserve it.”
Why not play air guitar to rocking music during relief pitcher warmups or dance to PSY’s Gangnam Style during post-victory stretches?
Elite performance shouldn’t neglect fun, and VanBrandt doesn’t, the Hoosiers don’t. It helps fuel their record-setting run.
And yet …
Fun doesn’t mean unfocused. VanBrandt’s fierce concentration in the on-deck circle before at-bats reflects that.
And yet …
VanBrandt had a Whiteford High School senior season for the ages, hitting .602 with 39 stolen bases to earn Miss Michigan honors. She set five school records, including career runs (202), career hits (220) and (batting average (.641) while playing for her father, Matt VanBrandt.
While that didn’t generate national recruiting acclaim, it drew plenty of interest from Stanton and her staff.
“Indiana believed in me,” VanBrant says. “That meant a lot. I first went to an Indiana camp that wasn’t on campus, and knew I wanted to play for them. I liked the coaching staff.”
Hoosier coaches were equally impressed with her.
“When you looked at her in total,” Stanton says, “she had the hand-eye coordination and the barrel control offensively, so we knew that would play well. She had good foot speed, so we knew that would play well. She had a good arm. She had good range.
“When you look at defensive ability, throwing ability, speed, hitting for average, all that was there. The only thing that needed to be developed was power. Now we’re seeing the five-tool player.”
Equally important was VanBrandt’s family. Her mother, Audra, played softball and volleyball in college. Her father played baseball in college. Both are educators and coaches, and hugely supportive.
“Growing up, they coached my first few travel teams,” VanBrandt says. “Just having them putting so much time and energy into me made a difference. It gives you more confidence when the people surrounding you care about what you care about. That helped me a lot.”
Adds Stanton: “They’re good, hard-working, loyal. In this business, you see all kinds of people, her family is very special.
“When you have the support system, when things get challenging don’t go your way, you’re going to put the work in.”
An exercise science major, coaching or training athletes could be in VanBrandt’s future (“it would be fun to work with athletes,” she says), but for now, there are games to win, a possible Big Ten tourney title to achieve and, perhaps, a deep NCAA tourney run to attain.
“This year has been the most fun I’ve ever had,” she says. “Everybody has been very positive. We all love each other. That makes it a lot of fun.”