Anybody who's watched Looney Tunes has a clear idea of how Tasmanian devils act. But Bugs Bunny has nothing on Justin VandePol, who's been playing professional basketball in Australia for five months.
    "The strangest experience I've had has been driving my teammates around Tasmania in the middle of the night, having just learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road (with) the steering wheel on the wrong side, trying to find our hotel while watching out for Tasmanian devils and other marsupials," VandePol said in a recent e-mail interview.
    It's certainly been a Tasmanian whirlwind that has taken him from the hardcourts of Grandville High School and Cornerstone University to the pro league Down Under. He's wrapping up his first season with the Ballarat Miners, a city about the size of Kalamazoo on the southeastern coast of Australia, about 70 miles from Melbourne.
    VandePol had been out of organized basketball for a year while he earned his teaching degree in both Science and Social Studies. Through mutual friends he met Steve Haney, an agent who represents a lot of Michigan State players and is well-connected overseas. But teams were leery about VandePol, both because he hadn't played in a while and "the fact I did not come from a big-name Division 1 university." He garnered interest from teams in ten different countries, but only one Australian team wanted to sign him.
    He flew out just before Thanksgiving, expecting to be met at the Melbourne airport. No one came. After waiting five hours, he took a cab to the team's stadium, where he caught some sleep in the stands. Before their game that night, he met the team's coach. "The coach…stated he did not want me on his team even if I was Michael Jordan. The owner and GM said I should be. What a way to start out in a foreign country on my own! Rather than be in the middle of an ugly situation I went and tried out for (the Ballarat Miners) and they offered me a contract."
    The Miners wanted him by January, which didn't leave much time to put his personal life in order. "I then had five weeks to go home, propose six months early to my girlfriend, pull off a wedding for 200-plus people and pack our life's belongings into four suitcases."
    Justin, 24, and his wife Kayla got married January 15, honeymooned in Maui, then immediately moved to Australia. It didn't take long for Kayla, a cosmetologist, to pitch in. She found a job at Stranded on Peel Salon - and they've become Justin's corporate sponsor. "Fortunately, they offered to sponsor me, which made my job a lot easier," he said.
    Corporate sponsors are a way of life in pro sports overseas, which can be both good and bad. Each club and every player has sponsors, which generate a lot of money for the team. But "every inch of team apparel we have is covered with sponsor patches. If we are ever interviewed on TV and do not have a piece of clothing with the sponsors name on it - the club gets fined!"
    For a player who was both an All-State high schooler and a two-time college All-American, the game is similar, but the differences are noticeable. "It is rougher, and they don't call fouls. Each night I go up against players who all played Division 1, half of them from the ACC, Pac 10, SEC. So it is more difficult than college. I think the fact that I am holding my own says something about the level of small college basketball played in western Michigan."
    Each game is an NBA-length 48 minutes, but the shape of the lane and the distance of the three-point line are different, and the league is extremely competitive. "We are 9-13 (as of June 20.) We have 4 games left and are a half game out of the last playoff spot. The league is so close and competitive that after a double header weekend (Australian for back-to-back games), the team who was in first last week - is now in last!" And he's found that fans of the game are fans of the game worldwide. "I am fortunate to be at probably one of the top two teams in attendance in the 14-team conference. We usually have big crowds who participate in the game." The 6'8 ½" forward - whose height on the Miners website was listed as 200 centimeters - has been embraced by the fans for his hard work, scoring and rebounding.
    He and Kayla live on-campus at St. Patrick's College in Ballarat where he works as a resident director, coaching the varsity team and overseeing the coaches and the development and training of the seven junior teams at the college. He's added more duties with the Celtic Tiger Basketball Club as their Director of Coaching and Player Development. "I oversee about 2 dozen coaches and their players. I evaluate them and then conduct coach and player clinics, aimed at improving the coaching and playing standards."
    Ideally he'd like to play basketball as long as he's physically able and is in a good situation. "Australia is an incredible country. I really don't know at this point if I will stay in Australia, play in a different country or settle down and teach" Science or Social Studies in junior high or high school "back home."
    But while they're there, they're enjoying every minute. "The average Aussie is a genuine, laid back, helpful person. Even though they speak English, it has taken a little while to get used to their accent and their love of slang and shortening of words. It's been a fairly easy transition, other than the first few weeks of driving on the opposite side of the road, with the steering wheel and turn signals on the opposite sides also. We dodge kangaroos here, not deer!"
    He's not complaining, though. He said the best part of being a pro athlete is the chance to see the world for free, though the distance away from friends and family makes it difficult to see people he loves for long stretches at a time. The upside is the different experiences. He and Kayla filmed a TV commercial for one of the team's sponsors, Harvey World Travel. They're "giving away a first-prize trip to Hawaii to the winner of the contest." They can't win, but they've already been to Maui. And it seems as if they will continue to play life above the rim for as long as possible.