Lakes' Vanderwall lean, mean on the mound

Ready for the understatement of the day?

It's not easy being a teenager.

Duh, we all knew that, right?

There's peer pressure - and all kinds of temptations. There's drugs, there's alcohol, there's sex.

And then there's food.

Food?

Yes, food.

Rarely do we think about food as being a tough issue for teens, but indeed it is.

School cafeterias are getting better at providing healthier alternatives at lunchtime, but the fact is, teens generally don't eat very well. And it's hard to be a health-food nut when all of your friends are constantly downing pizza, pop, ice cream and candy (aka the teenage version of the four food groups).

"You don't think about it when you're my age, but some of the stuff you eat is really bad for you," said Travis Vanderwall, a junior at Lakes High School.

Vanderwall would know.

He's a former junk-food junkie. Very former.

In fact, he's now the exact opposite of a junk-food junkie, thanks to a light-bulb moment he had at a baseball showcase in Crystal Lake in October.

Vanderwall is a top pitcher for the Eagles, and he's hoping that his light-bulb moment will lead to even brighter prospects during the 2009 season, which got under way statewide about two weeks ago.

Vanderwall already was doing pretty well for himself. He was a big gun last spring as a sophomore when he worked the mound to near perfection and hit a go-ahead double off the fence in his team's first regional championship victory in school history.

All things considered, Vanderwall thought he was bringing a nice resume and an impressive skills set to that showcase last fall. No wonder he couldn't believe his eyes when it was his turn to pitch in front of the scouts.

"They all started packing up to leave," Vanderwall said. "It was like they didn't want to see me. I wasn't sure if it was because I was the last person to go that day or what."

That's when Vanderwall's dad, Wade, sat him down for a heart-to-heart.

"My dad just told me that maybe it was my body type, that maybe those coaches were turned off by how I looked," Vanderwall said. "That was kind of hard to hear at first, but I knew he was right."

The 6-foot Vanderwall was 220 pounds at the time. According to body mass index calculators, the ideal weight for a 6-foot, 17-year-old boy is 183 pounds.

"You've got to be careful with how you say something like that, but I just told Travis that 225 pounds is a little big and that he had to work on that, not just for baseball, but for his life," Wade Vanderwall said. "When you get to be a bigger person, that's something you've got to watch your entire life. Being a healthy person really should be a top priority."

That made perfect sense to Vanderwall. The thing is, he had already found an even stiffer motivation for change. He was determined to never have what happened at the showcase happen again.

So, just like that, there were no more chips or fatty snacks. No more pop or candy either. Just lots of fruits, vegetables and proteins.

And Vanderwall's workouts suddenly went into overdrive.

A friend of his had recently started the deliriously rigorous P90X workout videos that target every muscle imaginable with intense and constantly changing exercises.

"It was hard. I did it like six or seven times a week," Vanderwall said. "When I added in a better diet, the weight started coming off fast."

Now, less than four months into his new health and fitness regimen, Vanderwall is a svelte 185 pounds, 35 pounds less than he weighed just last fall.

"It's hard because I crave all the foods I used to eat ... and I'm still around that stuff all the time because my friends eat it, people in my family eat it," Vanderwall said. "But that's how important baseball is to me. This was a whole lifestyle change and now I feel good."

Vanderwall must look pretty good, too. Because he recently went to another one of those showcases. And this time, he got a much different reception from the scouts.

"They didn't leave this time," said Vanderwall, who reports that his strength, quickness and stamina have all improved dramatically. "And now I'm getting (recruiting) letters."

No surprise there.

Vanderwall already had plenty of alluring technical tools, including the wicked slider that he perfected with the help of his dad, who was his youth and travel coach for many years.

Now, Vanderwall is also a walking advertisement for work ethic, which is a big hit with the scouts.

"Travis takes baseball very seriously and you can tell that now just by looking at him," first-year Lakes coach Bill Rosencrans said. "As a coach, you always want your best players to be your hardest workers because those are the players you can build a program around.

"I think Travis knew that if he wanted to play at the next level, he was going to have to be at the top of his game and be in really good shape, and he's done that. It's impressive."

Of course, Rosencrans might never be more impressed with Vanderwall than he was during double practices back in the fall. He ordered pizza and pop for the players during a break and was stunned at Vanderwall's will power.

"All of his teammates were sucking down that pop," Rosencrans said. "But not Travis."

Vanderwall now drinks water and protein shakes instead.

And his snack of choice is a protein bar.

"They actually taste good," Vanderwall said of the protein bars. "Not as good as ice cream, but they quench a hunger or a craving. I'm fine with it."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com