BEHIND THE WALL

When members of the Lake Forest High School community celebrated the latest group of students to be added to the Boosters’ annual Wall of Excellence in early September, they also paid tribute to the selfless visionary who conceived it—the late Brian Vandenberg.

MORE THAN 15 YEARS AGO, while sitting in a golf cart with Lake Forest High School (LFHS) Athletic Director Tim Burkhalter at the school’s West Campus, Brian Vandenberg—a past LFHS Boosters board member and president—looked around and started doing what he did regularly.

“What-if-ing,” recalls Burkhalter. “He loved doing that. We’d been talking sports and Boosters business that day when Brian said, ‘What if we did this to honor students or what if we did that?’ He was always thinking of ways to celebrate students’ successes at our school.”

One of Vandenberg’s grandest ifs—turning the nondescript side of the building housing the Lake Forest Community High School District 115 office, overlooking the school’s West Campus stadium, into the anchor for nine large vinyl banners featuring mostly action photographs of outstanding senior students and student-athletes—became a reality in 2010.

The formerly bland building side transformed into the prominently picturesque Wall of Excellence, thanks to Vandenberg’s zeal and relentless resourcefulness.

Each year, Boosters recognizes more than 15 recent LFHS students, including four students (two females and two males) as Outstanding Senior Athlete Award ($1,000) recipients for having demonstrated excellence through their athletic performances, leadership, spirit, and sportsmanship.

Honorees from the 2024-2025 academic year were celebrated at halftime of Lake Forest High School’s 2025 home football opener on September 5.

But the occasion also was a solemn one for the first time. Vandenberg, a lawyer and former track and field athlete who raised three children (Mykel, Cody, and Tyler) with wife Jamie in Lake Forest, passed away on March 20 at age 63.

In the middle of this year’s Wall of Excellence is a circular band of words: IN MEMORY OF BRIAN VANDENBERG WHOSE SPIRIT & ENDURING LEGACY CONTINUE TO INSPIRE US ALL.

“My dad understood the importance of curating an experience, and saw the Wall of Excellence as an opportunity to create an experience that invoked feelings of inspiration and awe,” says Tyler Vandenberg, a 2014 LFHS graduate who played lacrosse for the Scouts and at Dartmouth College. “Whether you are a Lake Forest Scout or an opposing team member, when you look up at the wall, you feel something… maybe it’s a feeling of excitement and adrenaline, honor, intimidation, and hopefully, excellence. It was important to my dad that the wall was representative of the excellence our students embodied as a whole, not just athletically. The inclusion of band members and student body leaders was not only intentional, but critical in delivering a message to visitors at our stadium—these students are what being a Lake Forest Scout is all about.”

Only photos taken by award-winning photographer Joel Lerner have adorned the vinyl banners. For the first four or five years of the unique tradition, he notes, action images from athletic contests were displayed. For more than 10 years since then, usually in early June, Lerner has arranged photo sessions for each of the honorees.

Lerner captures them in action and in full uniform, making sure each face and all limbs are visible. Vandenberg had admired Lerner’s prep-sports artwork for years before choosing him to produce the wall’s striking images of fiercely competitive athletes sporting the Scouts’ blue and gold colors.

“If a football player had worn a knee brace during the season in the fall, Brian insisted that the player wear that same brace for the photos I took of the player in June, even if his knee had healed,” Lerner says. “Brian cared deeply about the wall’s photos.”

“I’ve talked to students at Lake Forest High School about the Wall of Excellence,” he continues. “I hear great reverence whenever it’s discussed. It’s a huge deal—those banners are up there for a full school year.”

Former LFHS basketball standout Billy Douglass raised four children (Jackson, Olivia, Halle, and Ava) who attended his alma mater. Half of them (three-sport star Olivia and the best female hoopster to have ever laced ’em up for the Scouts, Halle) are Wall of Excellence alumni.

He, too, was a Boosters board member and president.

“I’ve never known a more selfless person than Brian,” says Douglass. “The man had great visions. But even greater than his visions was Brian following through on them and making them happen. That’s Brian, all Brian, that Wall of Excellence. The community rallied around his idea and it continues to embrace such a cool, wonderful tradition.”

The wall’s banners also feature words each year that you’d associate with fine citizens, not just all-state athletes or team Most Valuable Players. Words such as EMPATHY, COURAGE, RESPECT, HUMILITY, CHARACTER, AND INTEGRITY, among others.

“The wall is a way to annually recognize and celebrate youth excellence in a number of areas,” says Tyler Vandenberg, 29. “My dad loved watching future college athletes compete for the high school and coming up with ways to honor them. But he truly believed that the wall should really spotlight students’ leadership through community involvement.”

Parents of a visiting team arrive at LFHS’s West Campus for the first time. They exit their car and head toward the stadium’s entrance. Something—a car’s honk, a voice, or a flapping banner—makes them turn around. They look up. They see images on a wall of a diver plunging, of a lacrosse player about to unleash a shot, of a soccer player in mid-kick.

One parent nods. The other says, “Wow.”

“Brian also thought a lot about our school’s guests,” says Burkhalter. “His son Tyler was right; Brian was all about creating a memorable experience for others. He wanted guests to be treated well, to feel welcome in a first-class setting, and when I see our Wall of Excellence—especially when it’s lit up for our spectators at our team’s football home opener—I think, ‘Now that’s first-class.’

“Brian,” he adds, “was a special guy, a visionary.”

And a mentor to all, Tyler Vandenberg remembers.

“My dad had an incredible gift for connecting with people—so many people—because he was truly interested in everyone he met,” his son shares. “He was approachable, easy to talk to, and always eager to help in whatever way he could. My mom, my siblings, and I all feel the same deep gratitude: we were incredibly fortunate to share the time we had with him.”

Nobody knows how many more times Billy Douglass will gaze at the Wall of Excellence.

But Douglass knows one thing for sure.

“I’ll think of Brian each time I look at it,” he says.

The 2024-2025 recipients of the Outstanding Senior Athlete Awards were Danny Van Camp (lacrosse), Marty Hippel (football), Lulu Keil (lacrosse), and Maeve Farrell (lacrosse).