Coach Jonathan Vanderah is from Ankeny, Iowa where he graduated in 2010. He got his bachelor’s degree in Secondary Mathematics Education from the University of Northern Iowa in 2014. He began as a long term substitute teacher at Dowling Catholic High School and began teaching there full time in 2015. After one year of teaching, he completed courses to get his coaching Authorization in 2015 from Kirkwood Community College and began coaching Girls Basketball. In 2018, he completed Project Lead the Way training to begin teaching engineering classes. From 2019-2021 he completed a cohort through UNI to earn his Computer Science teaching endorsement. He began coaching high jump and long jump for the girls track and field team for the 2020 season after they struggled to find a jumps coach the previous season. He is currently finishing his master’s of education degree in curriculum and instruction with a STEM emphasis from LSU-Shreveport.
In Coach Vanderah’s tenure as the JV2 girls basketball head coach (similar to freshman level), he has a career record of 149-48 and has winning records in 9 out of his 10 seasons. Over half of the athletes he coached as freshman continued to play their sophomore season (75 out of 143) and to date 20 of his athletes would go on to make varsity later in their high school career – 8 made varsity their sophomore year and 4 were promoted to varsity for the postseason during their freshman year. He has assisted the varsity team during these 10 seasons, helping with scouting reports and offseason workouts for a program that has produced the following collegiate players in his time:
- Maddie Allen (St. Ambrose)
- Lexi Boles (Illinois State, Loyola Marymount)
- Caitlin Clark (Iowa, Indiana Fever)
- Josie Filer (Nebraska-Omaha, Illinois-Chicago)
- Emma Gaber (Upper Iowa, Clarke University)
- Macy Harnden (Loras)
- Ellie Muller (Mizzou)
- Nyajuok Toang (St. Louis, Stony Brook)
- Anna Wanek (Minnesota State-Mankato, Simpson)
- Ava Zediker (Creighton)
Coach Vanderah’s time as the girls jumps coach has arguably been more successful. In his nine seasons, he has coached the school record holders in both high jump and long jump. He has coached 10 state qualifiers in high jump (3 have scored points) and 4 state qualifiers in long jump (1 has scored). He has coached 4 high jumpers and 3 long jumpers that have cracked the all-time top-ten lists in school history. Over half of the grade-level top ten lists in both jumps have been set by jumpers in the last 7 years under his coaching. The key to his success? Getting multi-sport athletes to jump. Most notable performers he has coached that have graduated:
- Alex Gaskell: School record holder in high jump (5’6), 4 time state qualifier in high jump (2nd place twice), 4th in school history in long jump (17’5.75), made the top-ten list for every grade in both jumps, set the grade level record every year for high jump, also played basketball for two years.
- Ruby Leman: School record holder in long jump (18’10), 2 time state qualifier in long jump (2nd place once), made the top-ten list for every grade in long jump and set the record for both sophomores and juniors.
- Kate Nelson: tied for 3rd in school history in high jump (5’4), two time state qualifier (best finish was 6th), made the top-ten list for high jump (all four grades) and long jump (freshman, sophomore, and junior years), also played volleyball all four years.
- Ellie Muller: tied for 5th in school history in high jump (5’3), 2 time state qualifier in high jump (best finish was 9th), made the top-ten list for every grade in high jump, also played basketball and volleyball all four years (Mizzou basketball commit).
- Ava Groeteke: tied for 10th in school history for high jump (5’2), qualified for state once (14th), made the top-ten list for every grade in high jump, also played volleyball all four years.
- Mira Baccile: 2nd in school history in high jump (5’4.25), only coached her during her season season that was cut short to COVID (only meet she did she cleared 5’0), competed in track and field at Mizzou after high school.
With both programs, Coach Vanderah has assumed the role of program historian. He has built websites for both programs with all-time records and top-ten lists. The basketball site has top ten lists for every level (varsity, JV1, and JV2) and the track and field site has top ten lists for every event and every grade level. This has helped build cultures that celebrate success at every level and give opportunities for more than just the elite athletes to put their stamps on the program.