Alum of the month: Former Griffins soccer player Van Diest enjoying storied sports writing career
Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – He's penned articles on Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid, interviewed future Blue Jays stars Alex Rios and Gustavo Chacin as teenagers, rubbed shoulders with the best soccer players on the planet at the World Cup and stood in a champagne-soaked dressing room as the Carolina Hurricanes celebrated with the Stanley Cup.
Edmonton Journal/Sun multimedia sports reporter Derek Van Diest admitted he never expected the incredible ride that's been his 23-year career in the media when he graduated in 1997 from MacEwan with a journalism diploma, full of fond memories of playing for the Griffins men's soccer team.
"It's been quite amazing, to be honest with you," he said. "It's funny, when I was at MacEwan, I took journalism not really knowing if this is what I wanted to do. It was always something in the back of my mind that I'd want to be a sportscaster or broadcaster or something like that."
An internship at the Journal in his second year at MacEwan closed the door on his one-year soccer stint with the Griffins after he made the team as a walk-on in 1995 under late former coach Murray Orvis. At the same time, the experience launched his newspaper career.
"Murray had a good core of guys coming back and he had a number of high-end recruits (in 1996), so there really wasn't a spot for me on the team and I couldn't devote the time I needed to because I was working at the Journal as a freelancer," said Van Diest. "I was working almost every night."
That dedication paid off, leading to his first full-time sportswriter gig at the Medicine Hat News in 1997.
"I got there and was trying to feel my way around and a week later the (Medicine Hat) Tigers fired their whole coaching staff, their GM," he said. "They fired everybody. It was huge news. They brought in Rick Carriere from the Red Deer Rebels. Rick and I got to Medicine Hat a week apart from each other.
"They gutted their team. Rick basically said, 'this is what we're going to do. We're going to gut this team and start from scratch.' They bottomed out, but their first overall draft pick was Jay Bouwmeester. I remember talking to Jay when he was 14. He's a pretty tough (interview) now. Back then, you couldn't get two words out of him."
Derek Van Diest interviews Wayne Gretzky during Edmonton Oilers alumni availability upon the closing of Rexall Place in 2016 (Courtesy, Postmedia).
Van Diest honed his interview technique over seven years in the Gas City, which included writing on the Medicine Hat Blue Jays, then Toronto's farm team. With his family immigrating to Canada from Chile, Van Diest became fluent in Spanish at a young age, which helped him get the inside scoop on several top prospects such as Venezuelan ace pitcher Chacin.
"There were some pretty big names that ended up playing in Medicine Hat," he explained. "The good thing about that is a lot of these kids were from the Dominican Republic or other Spanish-speaking countries and I spoke fluent Spanish. So, I was the only guy who could talk to these guys."
That's not his only early reporting lesson. Van Diest remembers the night he answered a call from a very agitated then-Prince Albert Raiders head coach Kevin McClelland. The former Edmonton Oilers tough guy wasn't pleased with his Western Hockey League team after they lost to a Tigers squad well below them in the standings.
"McClelland was just fuming at his team," recalls Van Diest. "I remember two of the three stars were from Prince Albert that night, so they called the stars out and the guys didn't come out for the skate. So I went to talk to Kevin and he was in a bad mood. He was really short with me and he basically almost told me off. Then I went to talk to the Tigers before I remembered about the stars, so I wanted to come back and ask McClelland why the guys didn't come out on the ice. I came back and there was a guy from the Raiders putting away the water bottles and I said 'hey do you know why the stars didn't come out?' He says to me, 'I heard the coach yell at them to get in the room.' So I went with that.
"McClelland calls me the next day and he is furious. He and I went back and forth and I finally said I would write a retraction that he had nothing to do with it. This is before the web days, so I said I would fax over a copy of the story. So, I wrote the retraction and he calls me that morning and he gave me some really good advice. He said, 'listen, if a coach is upset, he's not upset at you. He's just taking it out on you. You have to stand your ground and you have to keep asking your questions.'
"I grew up in Edmonton, so I knew about Kevin McClelland, but when you're face to face with him, you realize how intimidating he is," added Van Diest. "So, to get advice from a guy like that, it went quite far. I've never been afraid to dig my heels in (since). That advice has come in handy quite a few times in talking to coaches who try to intimidate you or blow you off."
There have been plenty of positive encounters with sports figures, as well, such as when the Oilers brought in their alumni for a farewell to Rexall Place. Growing up Edmonton, Van Diest once met Andy Moog for an autograph as a kid and brought that picture with him as he met Moog again on that day in 2016. They posed for an updated photo.
Van Diest met Edmonton Oilers goaltender Andy Moog as a kid, left, and posed for an updated photo with him, right, during Oilers alumni media availability in 2016 at the close of Rexall Place (Courtesy, Derek Van Diest and Postmedia).
Hockey wasn't Van Diest's pursuit as an athlete growing up, however; rather he played soccer and football, choosing to play the latter for the Edmonton Huskies after high school. When he came to MacEwan, though, he decided to attend an open tryout for the Griffins men's soccer team. Orvis had the roster mostly set, including bringing in top scorers Jimmy Bustos and Fausto Bilotta.
"I think of the 21 players, Murray probably had 18 all ready to go, so he was just looking to see if there was anybody who fell through the cracks," explained Van Diest, a strong central midfielder. "At the time, he was coaching Victoria, so he knew all the Premier League players in the city, but he didn't know who I was, which kind of surprised him. I told him I stopped playing soccer for a couple years and was playing football for the Huskies, so that's why I hadn't been playing.
"I made the team as a walk-on that year – took one of the last spots remaining – which is pretty exciting."
That was Van Diest's final season as a competitive athlete. A knee injury later ended his soccer playing days, but he still officiates the game around the city, mostly in men's league action.
The memories and friendships made in 1995 at MacEwan have stuck with him.
"You grew up playing with or against these guys and you knew them all, especially in the club system," he said. "So, we hung out all the time, not just at practice. I have a lot of good friends on that team and I keep in contact with them. They'll ask me my opinion on the Oilers.
"It was a really fun team. It was a really good team. We just had a disastrous game in that semifinal (to Mount Royal). I think we ended up losing 3-1. It was a really great group of guys. I still keep in contact with a few of them today."
It still fits! Derek Van Diest still has his old MacEwan Griffins men's soccer team jacket from 1995 and plenty of memories of great times spent with teammates (Courtesy, Derek Van Diest).
Van Diest's path to back to his hometown from Medicine Hat began in 2005 when the Edmonton Sun hired him as a web editor. But it wasn't long before he was back in sports.
"My big break came during the (Oilers') Stanley Cup run of 2006," he explained, noting the main Sun beat reporters were returning from Detroit after the Oilers beat the Red Wings in the first round and they needed someone to possibly go to San Jose to write on the Sharks in case the Oilers met them in the second round. "Everyone expected it to be Edmonton and Calgary because Calgary was up 3-1 against Anaheim. As it happened, Calgary lost to Anaheim in seven games, so the Oilers played San Jose instead.
"That was literally my first break. I remember watching Game 7 between Calgary and Anaheim, praying Anaheim would win so I could go down to San Jose the next day."
Remaining on the beat during the playoff run, Van Diest ended up travelling to Raleigh, N.C. for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final and was given the task of covering the Hurricanes' side of the story, meaning he was in the room when they celebrated with the Cup.
He has been a part of the Oilers' beat ever since while also working on the sports desk for the now-combined Postmedia newsrooms of the Sun and Journal. He's interviewed hundreds of NHL players since.
Covering the NHL's Return to Play in the Edmonton hub has been a unique experience for all media involved, including for Postmedia's Derek Van Diest (Courtesy, Derek Van Diest).
During the NHL's return to play in the Edmonton hub this month, his role has been interesting, to say the least. Because they're not in the bubble, the media watches games from the upper concourse and interviews players via video screen afterward. It's colder than usual in Rogers Place, so they need to pack parkas with them, drawing looks from passersby under the hot August sun outside.
"It's quite a unique experience and I'm trying to make the most of it because I know it's something that will probably never happen again," said Van Diest, grateful he's one of few who get to watch NHL games live at the moment.
Another one of his assignments with the Postmedia chain is serving as the national soccer columnist, a role he officially took on earlier this year after covering the 2014 men's World Cup in Brazil and 2019 women's World Cup in France.
"It was an amazing experience," he said of last summer's event. "I was in France for five weeks, which was awesome. I actually got to go to the Champions League final in Spain before that. I was supposed to just cover Canada, but they got knocked out in the second round and they liked what I was doing, so they kept me on for the rest of the tournament. That was a lot of fun."
Van Diest spent five weeks covering the women's soccer World Cup in France last summer and interviewed several players, including Brazil's Ana (Carol) Caroline Martins Rodrigues (Courtesy, Postmedia).
"It's been beyond what I thought my career would be like," he said. "If you'd have told me back at MacEwan that this is what you're going to do – you're going to go to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, cover a bunch of playoff series and cover the men's and women's World Cups (I wouldn't have believed you).
"I love going to work every day and sometimes it's a challenge and sometimes it's stressful, but when you get paid to watch sports every day, you really can't complain."
