VERLOOP VAULTS VCU TO 5-1 FIELD HOCKEY START
By Greg Stephenson
9-17-04

RICHMOND, Va. - The Rams’ field hockey team is off to its best start in the history of the program.  More surprising than the squad’s 5-1 record is that the team’s most dominating player so far this season is still a few days shy of her 18th birthday.  She also traveled 3,700 miles so she could play for VCU.

Carlot Verloop hails from the field hockey hotbed of the Netherlands, the men’s and women’s silver medallists at the Athens games.  Unknown to many, field hockey is the world’s second-most popular sport and the Dutch treat it as so.  Many players begin playing around age four and develop through the country’s club system. 

Verloop, however, was comparably a late bloomer.  She played soccer when she was young, then finally at age eight she adopted field hockey, for which head coach Shelly Behrens is very grateful.  “She really creates a lot of opportunities on the field with her energy and her style of play.  She’s quite aggressive,” said Behrens. “You can’t deny the results.  Goal-scoring is hard in any sport.”

The results have been astounding.  The freshman leads the Colonial Athletic Association in points (25), points per game (4.17), goals (11), goals per game (1.83), shots (35) and shots per game (5.83).  She’s been named womensfieldhockey.com’s National Rookie of the Week for two consecutive weeks.  More impressively, she was the CAA’s Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week for the same week, the first time this has happened in the conference, which includes national power Old Dominion.  Add another CAA Rookie-of-the-Week honor, and it’s easy to see Verloop has become a force to be reckoned with.

Behrens first noticed Verloop at a recruiting showcase in the Netherlands in 2002.  The event was organized with the intention of giving Dutch players who wanted to go to school and play in America the opportunity to be exposed to American coaches.  Although the sport is not as popular in the States, many players still want to come here for a new experience.  “I just wanted to get away from Holland after high school, anyway.  I really didn’t know what I wanted to do and then this opportunity came to me,” said Verloop.

“She stuck out to me first as a goal-scorer, but also the other things she does: how she tackles back, her energy, her style of play.  There were just so many positives,” said Behrens, the third-year coach and member of ODU’s 1984 national championship team.  “She’s a different style of player for us and I think that’s good.  The other players feed off that and I think she learns from the other players, which will be invaluable to her growth.”

With Verloop’s early success it’s easy to forget that she’s still a freshman and she still has time to develop even more as a player.  But what’s more remarkable is that, while most freshmen are simply trying to adjust to college life, Verloop is also trying to adjust to a new country.  VCU has a large contingent of international student-athletes, and as a product of that so does the field hockey team.  Two other freshmen, Daphne Bravenboer and Anna Nordbeck, who played with Verloop at the club level, are also Dutch.

“I think having each other has made things easier for all of them.  They can speak in their primary language to each other and also teach us a few Dutch words,” said Behrens.  “The team likes to joke around about the different translations between the two languages and it makes it fun for all of us.”

The style of play in America is also different from the way the game is played in the Netherlands.  The Dutch play more of a finesse game, with more passing and more technical skills. “There’s a different attitude that people have here.  It’s stronger and everyone wants to play more.  The players are also more conditioned here, “ said Verloop.

“It’s a little bit more physical at times, but I think Carlot has adapted well,” adds Behrens. 

The one thing that Verloop has going for her no matter what country she’s in is her energy.  “She’s the Energizer Bunny.  She’s just constant movement, “ said Behrens.  “I think she’s really having fun.  She loves being in the VCU environment.  She’s always joking, always laughing and always smiling.”

Behrens added that Verloop has a great sense of pride because of her Dutch background, and thankfully for VCU it has carried over into an intense pride in playing for the Rams.  The team’s 5-1 record speaks to that.  Added assistant coach Adrian Clewlow, “She’s passionate about everything she does, about training, about games, about hockey and about what’s involved with being a student-athlete."