Reece Vander Zee Podcast

[Music] Zoom time today there that's good okay and record hello there Hawkeye fans and welcome to the hawk fanatic Prospect podcast here on Hawk fanatic.com it is Wednesday May the 29th shade after 1 p.m. central Time happy to be joined on this episode by reys vandery randers Vander easy for me to say um wide receiver doit all athlete at um Central lion George Little Rock it's a lot to get into one school name but we appreciate it how are you Reese we talked before we start a recording about kind of the hectic nature of that transition how are you handling kind of the the busy time of getting ready for college now and graduating yeah I'm doing good yeah it's been a really good experience just to reflect on high school and get ready for college and yeah it's been really busy but it's it's a good thing just to kind of wipe it wipe it all clean and get ready for my new chapter yeah you trying to spend as much time as you can with friends and family here before you get off to college and know that your schedule's going to be pretty Phill yeah for sure yeah I went I just got back back actually from a senior trip to the Black Hills with some of my friends so that was really fun to just kind of have a last last trip and be with them for a while so that was that was awesome for folks that don't know um Rees is not the only guy coming in uh from Central lion uh Graham even who I did a uh story with a while back I can't remember when I did it but uh checked that out on my feed um Co story his dad is the coach there uh which is an interesting aspect of It kind of make the transition a little smoother knowing that you have him and then Zach's already here to show you guys around yeah yeah for sure I probably have it the best having Zach there me and Graham can bounce any questions we have off of him and just really be the most prepared we can be for the big transition so I that's been awesome for both of us just to be able to do that and then having coach Ean that has good relationships with some of the coaches um at Iowa too and just to bounce stuff off of him too of what we should be doing how to do it so yeah I probably a big Advantage for me is having those guys around me too so yeah I should add Zack lmer was in the 24 class who came to Iowa last year he will be a red shirt sophomore this coming fall um so have a heavy we'll have be a heavy Hawkeye presence back there for the folks in central lion next season lot to uh lot investment in the program uh and uh that should be cool so um kind of what what's kind of been your um your spring just kind of to get yourself prepared for football you're a multisport athlete but now you're narrowing it down to one sport to get yourself prepared for um arrival here and being able to to work out this summer and then uh show what you can do in training camp yeah um I mean this Spring's just been it was all track uh I ran track and then I ended up getting hurt uh probably about a month five weeks ago now um so wasn't able to run it State track meet but uh no I had a good track season set some personal records in the hurdles and then this 100 and 200 so yeah I was it was sucks I was just getting to go get going my times are dropping and I I injured my ankle um so that's I've been nursing that for about a five six weeks now so um yeah and then I've started baseball too so I'm actually playing baseball this summer um and and going down to Iowa after I'm done with that so I'll be a little later than um everyone else that goes but I just kind of decided I wanted to finish out my baseball's probably my first love I had to I was gonna probably go to college for baseball but then all the stuff for football started coming in so yeah I just thought it was important for my team and everyone just to have me there and competing alongside with them so hopefully I can get back at it in a few weeks here um but yeah what's cool about that is coach ference and the the coaches of Iowa encourage these guys to finish up and uh it worked it worked out pretty well for Tyler linderal he played baseball his senior year and then was a pretty good college football player now and in the NFL um but uh did you do have you been kind of preparing just in terms of getting your head in the Playbook and preparing for because we'll talk about it but you were off the receiver position this last year because your team needed you in a different you know in a different Avenue so what have you done to kind of prepare yourself for that position yeah I mean mostly just getting in the wait room for the most part um tracks really help me with my speed my top end speed and that stuff but it's it's going to be a little I haven't really done much receiver stuff um but I mean it'll it'll just be like riding a bike I it won't be too hard it might take me a month or so just to get back at it but kind of having this injury has been kind of pushing me back a little bit not being able to train the way I want to which sucks but um no yeah I'll get i'll get back in the receiver I mean I haven't played it for probably a year and a half to two years now so but no it'll be just like riding a bike you just gotta be an athlete go out there and make plays so um yeah I think I'll Excel um was it a high ankle spray that's a pretty long time to be out did you do it on the hurdles um it was well I I entered it in a basketball game I I sprained my ankle basketball game and it didn't I don't think it fully healed before I started running track again um so yeah I was running track really well for about a three or four weeks and then I just stepped on it wrong I end up getting a bone bruise in my ankle so it's really it's a nagging injury that doesn't it takes a while to heal so I've just been really resting and trying to do my PT and stuff so pretty amazing you were able to continue running especially because the weather was so crappy here early in the track season and then starts to get warm and you get hurt that doesn't seem fair yeah and Graham I never I never actually got to run a relay with graham because he tore his laborum in football so he just got he got back the me after I got hurt so we we literally couldn't run together which sucked yeah that's a bummer way way to go out yeah but it's all right I I was pretty fortunate throughout High School not much injuries so so what went into the decision to to have you play quarter back Zach played it the year before when you were a sophomore right no Junior and uh then you stepped into that role last year kind of did you see that coming or or was that something that just kind of developed as you guys prepared for this season no I I knew it was coming I mean I was always a quarterback growing up uh I only played receiver for one year uh my junior year but I guess I played sophomore year too but uh no I played quarterback my whole life so it was it wasn't a very hard transition I knew the whole play Playbook already and uh luckily I had gram beside me to help me with all the Run fits and everything too so no it was it was a really smooth transition um so yeah does I I've heard this from others and I always wonder if it's it's pretty normal does playing the quarterback position help you understand the other positions on the field yeah I would say so for sure I mean you you gota you got to read the defense read your read your matchups and um you know know the Playbook inside and out I mean you got to know what everyone's doing at all times so that definitely helps me as a receiver just uh seeing things that other receivers might not see out there um and and trying to execute and um knowing what's going on at all times that I think that'll really help me yeah maybe we can get uh coach Lester to throw in the uh the uh reversed pass I think that would be a good good play for you let's do it uh Reese uh completed 96 of 129 of his throws last year it's almost 75% for 1288 yards 14 touchdowns only four interceptions and just as impressively ran for 700 1767 yards 9.3 a carry with 24 touchdowns you did catch two passes for 60 yards and two touchdowns who threw those to you the same guy no Graham threw him to me yeah uh he he he went in a quarterback a few few times that just put me out wide try to make the defense have to adjust and sometimes we ran it but yeah we ended up throwing it to me twice it was actually in the same game against West Sue but yeah I only caught two passes this year but um yeah I mean some most of my rushing stats were a little bolstered because my offensive line was they were they were really tough this year I mean me and Graham had had huge holes every time so it it's not as much as our athletic ability our offensive line uh really carried us through a lot a lot of stuff but no that was it was it was really fun year yeah yeah you guys got it rolling as a program right now no doubt about that you had 41 and a half tackles 27 solo and a and one for loss and you picked off two passes do you like playing defense yeah I do I mean it's it's it's good to be physical out there and learn how to how to tackle and that'll probably help me if I play any special teams and yeah I mean just going out there I I played Safety and Corner um just being able to understand covering people that'll probably help me too just to how to how to attack uh different spots so um how did your basketball season go um it went pretty good uh we ended up losing to uh state champions Western um in the let's see it was a third round of the playoffs yeah I don't I don't remember what our record was we were probably a few games over 500 um but no it was really it was really good really proud of our team cuz we lost a lot from our state championship team so no it was it was it was a really fun year just to grow and see everyone else gr um and yeah it was it was good year what are the benefits of being a four sport athlete in high school do you think we it's it's that we hear the constant pull of spe specialization kids focusing on just one Sport and then you're kind of the opposite end of the spectrum competing in four yeah I mean there's many different uh like advantages I mean I I never really know what a break is like um I'm always going so that I think that's one thing that Zach has said is that some guys they they kind of they aren't used to going all year round and they kind of get burnt out a little bit but uh I think I'm I have an advantage in that way just knowing that I can my body can handle it and um I just can go out there every day and do what I need to do and it's also helped me just athletically just to be able to do multiple different things and kind of adapt on the Fly and um learn quick and uh just go out there be an athlete and just use my abilities to help my team win um so yeah that's really helped me sometimes I I've her that's the most important aspect helping your team win that competition constantly being in competition and you know competing to win yeah yeah for sure I mean if I've learned anything from being out in the past five weeks it's just how much I uh Miss competing just going out there and having fun with my friends and I don't know just going out there and knowing you can you can go out there and dominate if you want um just I really miss that feeling um but uh once I get back I think I'll let it rip and yeah just it it is really helpful to can be competing all the time be in those high pressure situations um and and just knowing how to execute and uh be a good teammate and Lead throughout that situations too so it's really huge for me in my development in terms of your recruitment you talked about baseball being your first love and and feeling like that was your path maybe Beyond High School when did things start to shift to football and when did you realize that that was maybe the sport that could could benefit you down the road yeah it was probably just it flipped probably a few games in my junior year football uh I started getting some some visit opportunities to go down to Iowa State Iowa and stuff I was I got got some of those like oh gez like this some big time stuff might might I'll have to I'll have to see it see it through um yeah I just end up ballooning from there and uh yeah I ended ended up feeling led to go down the football path and it's been really good so far just to yeah I mean MoneyWise it's makes a lot of sense to play football um so no I I love football just as equally as I do uh baseball so if I'm GNA pick I'm going to do the one that I can play at the highest level and and be successful and be a part of a team that doesn't do things for themselves they do it for everyone else and have something bigger than yourself so that's a huge part for me just to be on a team that everyone cares about each other um just have that high level culture all the time around you to help you improve as a man and and as a football player at the at the same time so well you got that part in he told us why he picked Iowa um and and what he likes about the Iowa program and he chose the Hawkeyes over offers from Iowa State Nebraska um two-time defending FCS Champion South Dakota State and a bunch of others um when did you know when did you know Iowa was the place for you um honestly I can I can remember specific time it was I was talking to my parents after coming I I was on the way home from the official visit and I was like yeah this feels right um just everything that happened um all the guys that I met and all the everything that we experienced throughout that time I just I just felt like the Lord was leading me to to seek out the Hawkeyes and that's definitely where I need to be um I haven't looked back or doubted it at all um me and Graham just been in it together through this whole thing and we're going to go out and do what we do and execute a high level and see where the cards fall cool cool um all right probably a good time for us to take a little break here and then we'll jump back in with graham here with some more uh conversation about his future with the Hawkeyes I want to let folks know that support for this podcast comes from systems unlimited celebrating 50 years of providing service to people living with disabilities and mental health needs throughout East Central Iowa a list of their services in upcoming events can be found at su.org that is su.org thank you to systems unlimited for the support of the podcast and more importantly the great work they've been doing in our community for over 50 years we're going to hear from a few more of our sponsors and REE and I will be back on the other side with some more conversation hang in there and we are back here on the hawk fanatic Prospect podcast with ree vandery from Central lion want to let you folks know that switching is easy we do it all the time we switch on the lights we switch TV channels some of us switch Partners while square dancing well that's a stretch but what's not a stretch is how you can switch and save with State Farm in fact State Farm agent Chad bur right here in Iowa City can switch you over so you can start saving today Chad and his team are ready to welcome you to the State Farm neighborhood with Chad bur it's easy to switch and save just give them a call when you want the real deal like a good neighbor State Farm is there thank you to Chad bur and all of our sponsors um so I assume Reese that you're room you're going to be a room roommate with Grant or are you guys going to try to split up and learn somebody new yeah we're we're actually G to split up and try someone new I mean we're gonna I mean we'll be together all time so we we just decided that it's probably good to meet some new people and just develop new relationships so I'm I'm rooming with Michael Bert um from from Omaha so yeah that'll be I think it's a really good really good match up for me um so yeah we'll well I mean we'll be each with each other all the time so it'll be fun the tight end wide we receiver roommate combination um um what's the vibe like with this class reys just this 24 Iowa class how have you guys kind of bonded and and what's the vibe yeah I mean it's high Vibes I mean we have a ton of high level athletes ton of ton of guys that know how to get things done um and really successful at basically everything they've done so I think we'll just bring a continue the winning culture at Iowa and just be tough and physical um and yeah get things done B bond together as the years go on and it yeah I think it'll be a really good class to to continue the winning culture for sure I hear some great things about those official visit weekends when you guys all get in there and kind of you know the commitments in a given given year and then the the guys that are the top targets what was that like for you give us a little insight into what that that official visit weekend was like yeah it was awesome uh we had all the guys basically everyone that was there ended up committing or already was committing so they they just do the big do a big weekend with everyone there and everyone gets to know each other and all the guys that are already committed they just kind of try to nudge you a little bit to hey hey we want you over here and all the players kind of kind of do the same thing and no it's it's it's awesome I mean you you feel included with everything um you get to really know the culture and what everything's about um sometimes in recruiting you get a little little bit of fake stuff and you know but you get a lot of real stuff on those official visits um just to kind of weed out the things you want and what you don't want and know that those those are really helpful um just just for me to process it um so yeah it was awesome um and you've already before you even get to College you experienced uh the uh fact that this is a business you commit on your official V well after your official visit but on your official visit the offensive coordinator is Brian ference the receiver coach is Kelton celan then we get to the winner now you've got Tim Lester is the offensive coordinator and Bud Meer as the receivers coach how did you process that and and what has happened since the change that makes you feel comfortable no yeah I felt I thought it was okay I mean I I really like help uh coach Copeland um he was really down to earth and he was really good to us um but uh yeah at the end of the day it is a business and I understand that but yeah coach bu Meer and Coach uh Lester they talked to me when I was down for a spring game and everything was really positive uh they they installing their new offense pretty seamlessly and um yeah everything's been pretty positive what I've been hearing uh from Zach and some of the other guys um on the team so no I'm really excited to get to work it might be a little Advantage for me just everyone else is learning a new system too so um yeah might be a little bit of advantage for me just to be kind of where everyone else is too so do you see much a difference the of like what you committed to in terms of maybe how you'd be used or what you see in the offense to where things are at now or is is it pretty much the same for you um I would say it's mostly the same I mean they were kind of think of me as an outside receiver X or z type of guy um so I I don't think it's really changed for me as much um um yeah I I'm more of a red zone type of guy trying to make big plays so um yeah I don't think it's really changed for me as as much as maybe some other guys what's your speed like what were you running hundreds 200s before uh before you got hurt uh my best 100 was a 1099 and my 200 I want to say it was 224 225 something like that but yeah uh that was probably halfway through the season my times just finally get to get getting there so do you find like that you're a bigger receiver that your speed surprises people sometimes yeah I mean I hope so um yeah I mean everyone's gonna be fast at that level so I mean just to have a little little above average speed was probably help me a lot um but yeah I mean the sky's a limit I think just to get in the program and work on everything I need to work on um I really haven't had a time to just just focus on training for a while so I think that'll really help my speed and my strength to have that time just to get ready coming in there there are opportunities at this POS at wide receiver you know that you know we know that that that position needs to be better moving forward those of us that follow Iowa football um even though you're a little bit behind by playing quarterback and then you know playing baseball are you coming in here with the mindset of I got a sh a shot to play right away yeah I mean I'm I'm definitely doing that I mean anyone who who's a competitor has that has that mindset of I'm I'm gonna do whatever I can to get on the field um so I mean it doesn't matter if it's special teams or if I'm playing on the offense I really don't really care I just I just want to get on the field do everything in my power to do my best and I know it's probably not going to come easy um it might might be a little hiccups along the way which is to be expected at this high level um but uh no I'm just going to go in there with my with everything I got and give it my best shot and but let the cards fall uh where they do I mean I I think I have a good shot but uh um yeah I'm just going to do everything I can yeah the Special Teams um did you play a lot of special teams in he you did everything else did you did you contribute much on special teams maybe earlier in your career yeah I returned some puns yeah sophomore and junior year I did kick off and Punt and all that stuff I not as much this year with playing quarterback and all that but yeah it returned some punts this year I guess but um yeah I'm pretty experienced with special teams too so cool um I want to keep you much longer here but want to let people get a chance to know you a little bit away from all the sports and Athletics that we're talking about what do you do you talked about the trip to the Black Hills beautiful part of the country what do you like to do kind of in your free time just to kind of unwind a little bit away when you're not playing sports yeah um I like to watch movies TV shows I actually have me and my family have our own business um called Carol Street treats where we make ice cream sandwiches um with chocolate chip cookies and other types of cookies and put ice cream in the middle so that that keeps me pretty busy too that's actually grown quite a bit um in the past four or five years um so is that right is that is right in town yep yeah we started it about probably eight years ago now we started just selling them outside of our house and it's really grown uh we probably have 15 to 20 places that sell them in their stores and restaurants convenience stores so no that's that keeps me busy for sure how did that come about how how did you how did did somebody just like start doing it and you guys liked it and said hey maybe other people like it yeah yeah we just made them one day and we were like hey maybe we could just sell these for few few days out of the summer and make some make some extra money and then it just really blow blew up and yeah it's almost to the point where we got to start hiring people to help us out too so um we have our own we have our own commercial kitchen and H yeah it's it's awesome that's neat that's really cool um so if you're up in ree's neck of the woods make sure to try out those ice cream sandwiches they sound great I will when I'm up there um what type of movies and TV shows do you like is there a certain genre or do you skip around um yeah I don't really have a specific genre my favorite's probably Breaking Bad I've watched that a few times that's a good one fan of that myself yeah yeah for sure um how about the movies is it more just do do you go out to the movies a lot or is it more watching them at home no I don't really go out to movies as much maybe a few here and there with my friends but uh no it's mostly at home I don't really have a favorite I guess I'm not as much into movies I'm more into TV shows probably when do you think you'll miss the most at home up Beyond family uh obviously your parents and siblings um yeah I would just say the central L aspect just how many people there really care about you I mean so I think something that sets us apart um from other schools I would say um is just how detail oriented and how like um the people there work as hard as they can to try to put you in the best place possible um like every coach I've had um will do everything in their power to to help us win but as but also help us develop um so I think that's probably the biggest thing that I'll miss is just having having people that you know um that you trust all around you at all times but I know that I'm going into a program that has the exact same type of people that'll do everything that in their power to to develop you and to to help you be the be the best player you can be um so that's probably the thing I'll miss but I'm also excited to learn new new things and um be around highle people all day all the time like I already am so any like uh homecooked meals things like that that you'll miss restaurants in the area yeah uh we like to go to sa Bravo it's a Mexican place in town we don't really have too much in town just being a small town but no that's probably our go-to place to go to I would say well I I think I mentioned you I did the podcast with brevan dah last week and he said his favorite restaurant in his town is a Mexican place too so maybe you guys can connect while you're here and I can give you guys tips on the Mexican restaurants in Iowa City that you guys Al like yeah um what are you looking most forward to about college yeah I mean obviously playing football um just I think when I put that put that uniform on and walk out of that tunnel the first time it's just gonna hit me and be like gez I I've rooted for this team my whole life I've always been a DieHard Hawkeye fan just to walk onto that field with the 70,000 people chanting hawkey and um no I think that'll that that's what I'm looking forward to the most just getting on that field warming up and having that that crazy Adrenaline Rush going um that that'll be the best part I think yep never gets old never gets old being in that stadium for that um do you know what you're going to study yet yeah pre- business um just I'm gonna start there and hopefully I get a little more specific as it goes on but uh yeah oh you've got a good start with the ice cream business you can tell the the instructors when you get in there that you've got a leg up on everybody else ores I really appreciate appreciate you taking the time to join us here on the hawk fanatic Prospect podcast wish you all the best in your remaining time back home and look forward to seeing you when you get to Iowa City I appreciate it thanks for having me all right guys thanks for listening to the prospect podcast we'll be back with another Prospect podcast in the near future so stay tuned and like and sub subscribe to our podcast feed we really appreciate it thanks for listening