Player Spotlight: Tim VanderBrink, S | Written By St. John Fisher Athletics Communications Student Assistant Nic Bakker
Timothy VanderBrink will tell you he isn’t the strongest or the fastest player on the field. What sets him apart is how well he knows the opponent before the ball is snapped.
“I just play with great technique, and I’m very into my preparation,” the St. John Fisher senior safety said. “I feel that gives me an edge.”
That edge has made the Long Island native one of the most decorated defenders of the decade for Fisher football. He has been a two-time Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week, a D3football.com Team of the Week honoree and a second-team All-Empire 8 selection. In his head coach’s words, he is an All-America-level player.
VanderBrink started playing football in first or second grade in Smithtown, and at Smithtown West he also played lacrosse and basketball. Fisher wasn’t on his radar until his senior year of high school.
One visit changed that. “The school was like a hidden gem,” he said.
He arrived as a linebacker wearing No. 54 and worked his way onto the field midway through his freshman season through special teams and defensive packages. As a sophomore, he moved to safety and switched to No. 32. The number nods to Budda Baker, the undersized, physical NFL safety whose game VanderBrink sees in himself.
“It definitely was a bumpy road,” he said. “Playing linebacker my whole life, and then having to learn how to play defensive back, backpedaling. I think it made me a better all-around football player.”
Under head coach Ed Raby Jr., he plays a hybrid safety-linebacker role that draws on both skill sets, and on hours of film. “I’ve been big on film since high school, and I love studying,” he said. The captain credits that work for games like his 14-tackle performance against Alfred last season. “I feel like I had a step on them before they even knew,” he said.
Injuries have tested him. He broke his ankle late in his freshman season and missed all of camp before his junior year with a hamstring injury. That fall, a turf toe injury against Cortland ended his season after six games. This year, a hamstring injury at Brockport, the same game in which he made a career-high 16 tackles, sidelined him again.
“It’s been a huge mental obstacle for me,” he said. “The biggest thing I always preach as a leader is that you can always control your attitude and effort. That has nothing to do with your skill or your talent. Even being hurt, I can still bring that to the table.”
Rehab taught him two lessons. The first is to stay grateful, because “you never know when a season could get taken away from you.” The second has been to “keep getting off the mat.”
As a captain for two years now, his leadership has always been recognized as loud.
“You kind of want the guys a little crazy, screaming around,” he said. “I feel like that makes the whole unit better, and it’s the personality of our defense.”
His favorite part of practice is the daily good-on-good periods, where he gets to compete against fellow captains Ryan Whitney and Jackson Cusack.
In these sessions, tensions between behaviors within teammates have a chance of rising. Over time, he has learned to keep his competitive behavior level. “Never get too high, never get too low,” he said. “Football games are long. You’ve just got to keep fighting.”
He has found a like-minded partner in graduate safety Eric Sparkman Jr. “He’s very big on preparation, too,” VanderBrink said. “We can bounce ideas off each other and see plays happen before they happen.”
Raby has been public about putting an All-America label on VanderBrink, and the senior feels no extra pressure from it. “It’s a privilege,” he said. “I have that standard for myself every year.”
After graduation, he hopes to work in sales or move into a leadership role in management. When people look back on his career, he wants one word to stand out.
“Leadership,” he said. “Being elected team captain is the biggest accolade you can get. Having 100-plus guys vote for you and trust you to lead their team. That means the world.”
