By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Long-time Wyoming are high school basketball coach Thom Vander Klay was recently recognized for 305 varsity victories at the Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Banquet in the Detroit.
While he was unable attend in person, Vander Klay was inducted into the 300+ Varsity Century Club at the BCAM Hall-of-Fame/Clinic week-end, held Oct. 14-15 at Oakland University in Auburn Hills.
“The award is mostly a longevity award,” Vander Klay said in an interview with WKTV Journal. “I love teaching and coaching and have done it a long time, so a few wins will happen along the way.”
Vander Klay been coaching prep basketball for more than 30 years, with his first 10 as Wyoming Park’s junior varsity coach and the next 21 as a its varsity head coach. He became Wyoming’s head coach after Park and Rogers high schools merged in 2012. he is a member of the Wyoming Public Schools Hall of Fame.
“I have had some Hall of Fame caliber mentors when I attended Wyoming Park and first began teaching, including Jack VerDuin, Rich Renzema, Frank Grimm, Dick Locke, Kelly McEwen and Ron Engels,” he said. “We have also had so many gifted players with great work ethic who were driven to compete and reach their potential. To name even a few of those kids would take a long time!”
Vander Klay is a 1982 Park High School graduate, and a 1986 Hope College graduate.
He has guided the Wyoming varsity basketball teams to nine Academic All-State teams, seven conference championships, four district championships, a regional championship, and a state Final Four. In all, 27 of 32 teams have been in the top three in the conference.
He has three times been named Regional Coach of the Year, The Detroit News state Coach of the Year in 2004, and the MLive Best Coach 2016, and West Michigan Officials Association Coach Of the Year 2017.
But he made clear his staff deserves as much credit as he for the 300-plus wins.
“Our basketball staff has been outstanding,” Vander Klay said. “Professional educators such as Jerry Haggerty, John Robinson, Craig VanVliet, Brett Dyke, Craig Neitzel, Kirk Kambestad, Jacob Underhill, Abbey Czarniecki, Bernard Varnesdeel and Chris Hose have worked tirelessly in years past to give our kids the leadership they need to become quality young men.
“Bernard is currently our program assistant coach, and Jacob and Chris are still coaching our younger teams. Volunteers such as Jason Bleyerveld and Scott DeYoung have given much of their time and energy to our program for many years.”
Ultimately, though, Vander Klay credits the “atmosphere” in Wyoming as being a big reason for the program’s success.
“I am fortunate to be able to teach and coach in Wyoming where the parents, students, and school work together to make sure our kids have opportunities to be successful. Our parents not only allow the coaches to have high demands on their sons to be developed as young men. Tough love is the expectation from our parents which allows us to coach their sons hard and demand they compete.”
And, after all, Wyoming his coach’s home.
“My parents still live here, my siblings and I went to school here (Wyoming Park), I live here, my kids went to school here,” he said. “This is a great place to work, raise a family, and go to school. We have so great teachers and coaches who really care about the kids and work hard to make sure they have an opportunity to be successful.”
