Hard work pays off for Vanderbeek twins
2010-01-08 Author:Paul Franklin Source:mycentraljersey
BRIDGEWATER -- If you ask most 8-year-old boys what they want to be when they grow up, chances are the answer will be a baseball or football player. Connor and Chandler Vanderbeek are doing more than hoping. The 14-year-old identical twins from Warren have been playing organized football since the flag version in first grade, and since the age of 8 have worked out at Test Sports Club in Martinsville. Their desire to play football is so intense that their dedication is already paying off big-time. On Sunday they will play for the East squad in the second annual Football University Youth All-American Bowl at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. The game highlights some of the best seventh- and eighth-grade players in the country. "I love football," said Chandler before a recent workout at the test center. "I love running the ball, I love hitting people, I love every aspect of it." The 5-foot-6, 155-pound eighth-graders play running back, linebacker and in the secondary for the Watchung Junior Warriors in the Junior Skyland League. "We're really excited," said Connor about the trip. Their father, Keith Vanderbeek, was a standout football player at Bridgewater-Raritan East, as was their uncle Jeff, who happens to own the New Jersey Devils. The kids train a few times a week under the guidance of former Rutgers defensive standout William Beckford. Workouts are geared to improving speed and agility, and strength and power. "Right now these guys are the same as far as talent, which is crazy," the 26-year-old Beckford said. "Normally one advances more than the other, but maybe it's because they haven't fully matured. I've gone to some of their games, and I can tell you they can play. "I try and make it a competition," Beckford said about workouts. "There have been plenty of days they've come in and one isn't as motivated as the other. But 99.9 percent of the time they get each other up. Brothers are competitive enough, but twins are another story." For now they plan on enrolling at Immaculata High School, where their brother Taylor is a junior. A younger brother, Griffin, is in seventh grade. It was when Taylor was 11 years old that the twins wanted to see what their brother was doing at Test Sports. "Give kudos to the people at Test; they wanted to make it fun," Keith Vanderbeek said. "At the beginning a workout might be a game of tag, trying to touch the dots to get your feet moving. The thing that was interesting was, "Let's see if you can do it faster next time, let's see if you do it faster than your brother did it.' "Therefore it wasn't something like, "Oh my God, I have to go work out and I'm eight years old.' They wanted to go, it was fun. It was almost like an hour of play time." Good students, they don't feel they are risking burnout or putting too much effort into one aspect of their young lives. "You can't put too much energy into anything," Connor reasoned. "I think it will pay off in the end." (Edit:Ruby) |