Parents visit schools for tight end, rave about Arkansas

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• By Richard Davenport
• 6:00AM on August 27th, 2010

Tight end/defensive end Dillon van der Wal planned to take a tour of the colleges but was unable to due to participating in a 7-on-7 tournament.

Van der Wal 6-7, 235, 4.75 of Westlake Village, (Calif.) Oaks Christian has six scholarship offers, Arizona State, Baylor, Duke, Minnesota, San Diego State and New Mexico State while drawing interest from Arkansas, Nebraska, Penn State and others.

While he stayed back home, his parents went ahead with the planned trip across the country to visit 10 schools, including Arkansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Penn State, Duke, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.

“They loved everything about it,” said van der Wal of his parents visit to Arkansas in mid-June. “My mom went on and on about the facilities, my dad as well. They loved the area. They loved everything about it.”

Van der Wal, who plans to set up his five official visits in the near future, recorded 70 tackles, 15 sacks and 1 interception on defense while hauling in 12 receptions for 192 yards and 3 touchdowns on offense.

“A big thing for me is to have a program where you have the opportunity to get to the next level,” said van der Wal, who’s familiar with fellow Oaks Christian graduate and current Arkansas defensive back Andru Stewart “Somewhere that’s a factory for the pros. It was one of the top schools on their list when they came back and it’s pretty high on my list too.”

He said the Hogs will be eyeing his play before making a possible offer.

“They want to see me in the first couple of games and go from there.” he said.

Reporting a 3.2 grade-point average, van der Wal hopes to work in a sports related field after college.

“Sports is my passion everything I do pretty much revolves around either doing something in football or something in basketball I want to keep sports in my career path,” he said. “What’s a job if you don’t have passion for it?”

van der Wal said Arkansas instantly jump into the mix for his services should he earn a scholarship offer from the Razorbacks.

“That would definitely put them near the top of my list,” van der Wal said. “Because that’s somewhere you can go and compete in the SEC, the best conference, one of the most competitive conferences around. They’re going to be making a run for the SEC title from what I understand.”