Rachael Vanderwal
Rachael Vanderwal (born 27 June 1983) is a 5'9 (1.75m) point guard for Great Britain women's national basketball team. She is part of the squad for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[1] She has dual citizenship with Great Britain and Canada.
Rachael grew up in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. She figure skated until the age of 12, when she took up the sport of basketball. She played for Bishop Ryan Secondary School in Hamilton winning the provincial championship her final year in 2001. She played for Boston University in the NCAA Division 1 from 2002-2006 in the America East Conference. She captained the squad her sophomore, junior and senior years. As a freshman, BU won the America East and went to the NCAA tournament, playing the national champions University of Connecticut in the first round. She received All-Conference first team and All-Defensive team her senior year. She remains in the career top ten in minutes played.
Rachael has played professionally in the Irish Superleague from 2007-2014. Her first two seasons where with Donoughmore, Cork where she won National Cup and League Titles and Player of the Year back to back. In 2009 she transferred to the University of Limerick where she led the league in scoring. The UL huskies have dominated the Irish Superleague in recent years winning 4 regular season titles, 3 national cups and 3 league playoffs from 2010-2014, with Rachael playing a dominant role. Rachael won Player of the Year three years in a row from 2011-2013.
She then moved on to playing professionally in the top Liga Femenina in Spain for the past two seasons from 2014-2016. She has played for Gernika Bizkaia Basketball Club both seasons.
She made her Great Britain Senior debut in 2010 against Portugal. She has played with the senior team ever since, participating in Eurobasket 2011, the London Olympics 2012, Eurobasket 2013, Eurobasket Qualifiers 2014, Eurobasket 2015, and most recently Eurobasket Qualifiers 2016. She received her 50th cap in the London Olympics against Brazil.
YEAR BY YEAR STATS:
Great Britain Senior Women
Year PPG RPG APG
2013 EuroBasket Women Finals 5.7 2.8 0.8
2012 Olympic Games 2.8 2.0 0.8
2011 EuroBasket Women Finals 2.0 1.7 1.0
2010 European Division A 1.0 0.6 0.6
Professional (Club) Career
Year Team PPG RPG APG
2008-9 Cork 24 - 3.6
2009-10 Limerick 22.2 - 3.5
2010-11 Limerick 16.5 - 2.1
2011-12 Limerick 19.7 3.1 3.9
2012-13 Limerick 19.2 4.5 3.2
2013-14 Limerick 18.5 7.4 3.2
2014-15 Gernika 6.8 2.8 2.0
2015-16 Gernika 8.6 2.7 1.9
Boston University Career
Year PPG RPG APG
2002-03 3.1 1.7 1.1
2003-04 4.1 2.8 2.4
2004-05 11.3 4.9 4.8
2005-06 12.7 6.4 3.5
Personal Achievements:
- Women’s Irish Superleague National Cup, Regular Season and League Champions (2011-2013) with University of Limerick.
- Women’s Irish Superleague MVP in National Cup and League finals (2011, 2012)
- Women’s Irish Superleague National Player of the Year (2010, 2011, 2012)
- Women’s Division One National League Player of the Year (2008)
- Women’s Division One National League Cup MVP (2008)
- Cork Institute of Technology Women’s Basketball Player of the Year Award (2007)
- Women’s Division One National League and Cup Final MVP (2007)
- Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar-Athlete Award (2006)
- America East All-Conference First Team Award (2006)
- America East All-Defensive Team Award (2006)
- America East All-Conference Third Team (2005)
- Boston University Women’s Basketball Captain (2004-2006)
- America East Championship Finalists (2004-2006)
- America East Champions and Division One NCAA Participants (2003)