FORT MADISON/WEST POINT — For Tom and Leslie Vonderhaar, Friday and Saturday nights during football season can sometimes feel like a race across the country.
On Friday night, they can be found in the stands at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa cheering for their son Blake, a senior playing his final season of high school football.
By Saturday morning, they may be boarding a plane bound for Colorado Springs, where another son, Luke, is starting at right tackle for the Air Force Falcons — while their daughter Rachel works just a few yards away on the sideline as a manager for the team.
It is an unusual family story, but one whose roots trace back to southeast Iowa.
Tom Vonderhaar (son to Gene and Velda Vonderhaar), a 1988 graduate of Marquette High School in West Point, and Leslie Vonderhaar (daughter to John and Diane Rempe), a 1996 graduate of Aquinas High School in Fort Madison, are the parents of five children.
Today, two of those children — Luke and Rachel — are cadets at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Earning an appointment to the Air Force Academy is no small accomplishment. Admission is highly selective and requires far more than strong academics. Candidates are evaluated on academic achievement, leadership, character and physical fitness, and must also secure a nomination, typically from a member of Congress.
Luke and Rachel took very different roads to Colorado Springs, but both ultimately chose a college experience centered on challenge, leadership and service.
Luke’s journey: Football, adversity and perseverance.Luke’s path to the Academy began during high school at Pleasant Valley, where the 6-foot-4, 285 pound offensive lineman excelled academically and athletically.
A 4.0 student who took AP courses throughout his high school career, Luke also distinguished himself on the football field, playing on both the offensive and defensive lines. He lettered in football, wrestling (going to state his junior and senior year, earning a 6th place finish in the heavyweight division his senior year) and baseball. Earning first-team all-state and all-district football honors and was an academic first-team selection along with many other accolades academically and athletically.
As college opportunities began arriving in 2020 and 2021, Luke considered numerous schools and programs. Among the opportunities he received were the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy along with a few other college offers.
After visiting schools and weighing his options with his family, Luke kept coming back to three things about the Air Force Academy: the football program and its coaches, the opportunity to receive an exceptional education, and — most importantly — the chance to serve his country.
He committed to Air Force and reported to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in June 2022.
His first introduction to Academy life was six weeks of Basic Cadet Training, an intense transition from civilian life to the military environment. Cadets learn military customs and courtesies, drill, inspections, physical conditioning and Air Force and Space Force heritage before moving into the field-training portion at Jacks Valley.
There, cadets face demanding physical and military exercises designed to build teamwork, resilience and leadership.
For Luke, it was the beginning of an Academy experience that would test him in ways he could not have anticipated.
Initially pursuing engineering, Luke later changed his academic direction, eventually moving toward business-related studies. At the same time, he continued developing as an offensive lineman for the Falcons.
Then came a much more serious challenge.
During summer training in California in 2024, Luke suffered a torn pectoral muscle. Surgery followed, but shortly afterward he became seriously ill and was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism in his left lung.
The health scare resulted in Luke taking a medical turnback — essentially stepping away from the Academy for a year so he could recover.
For someone accustomed to pushing forward, the year away presented an entirely different kind of challenge. But Luke recovered, returned to Colorado Springs and resumed both his Academy education and his football career.
Now a senior, Luke is healthy, back on the field and starting at the right tackle position for Air Force.
His comeback has also drawn recognition. In June, Luke was named to Phil Steele’s 2026 preseason All-Mountain West second team. In July, he was one of four Air Force players selected to represent the Falcons alongside head coach Troy Calhoun at the Mountain West Football Media Days in Las Vegas.
It was an opportunity that put Luke in front of reporters and cameras to talk about a program and an Academy experience that have become an important part of his life.
One of the traditions that has particularly impressed him is the Academy’s noon meal formation. During the academic year, the Cadet Wing assembles by squadron before marching across the Terrazzo into Mitchell Hall for lunch — a sight unlike almost anything found on a traditional college campus.
But some of Luke’s favorite memories are found inside Falcon Stadium.
There is something special, he has said, about running out of the tunnel alongside teammates who have experienced so much together.
At a service academy, teammates are more than classmates and football players. They train together, study together, live under military discipline together and learn to depend upon one another.
That bond is one of the things Luke values most.
The demands are substantial. Cadets balance a rigorous academic schedule with military training, physical requirements, leadership responsibilities, inspections, athletics and duties within their squadrons.
Luke has learned firsthand what the Academy means when it talks about developing leaders of character.
And his next chapter is already beginning to take shape.
Luke is scheduled to graduate with the Class of 2027 and has been selected to enter the United States Space Force following graduation.
Football, however, may still have another chapter.
After battling injuries throughout his college career, Luke is healthy and playing at a high level during his senior season. Should a professional football opportunity materialize after graduation, any ability to pursue it while delaying full-time military service would be subject to Department of Defense and service approval.
Whatever happens on the football field, Luke’s future includes serving his country.
Rachel’s journey: “I want a challenge”Rachel’s route to the Air Force Academy began very differently.
After watching her older brother’s experience and visiting Colorado Springs with her family, Rachel found herself drawn to the Academy. Like Luke, she had excelled academically in high school, earning a 4.0 GPA while demonstrating leadership through basketball and track.
Her parents also knew their daughter had never been one to shy away from responsibility.
In fact, the family still laughs about Rachel’s ability to get her brothers and sister moving.
If Rachel told them something needed to be done, there usually wasn’t much discussion.
“Rachel always meant business,” her parents recall.
During her college search, Rachel toured Iowa’s three public universities and was accepted. But rather than feeling finished with the process, the experience made her think more seriously about what she wanted from college.
She wanted something that would challenge her.
That realization came at nearly the last possible moment.
The night before her congressional nomination application materials were due, Rachel decided she was going to try for the Air Force Academy.
After finishing her regular high school homework, she and her mother stayed up until approximately 2 a.m. completing the extensive application and essay questions.
Rachel did not expect anything to come of it.
She was simply willing to try.
Within days, she was invited to interview for a congressional nomination. The process included an interview before a panel that evaluated candidates for one of the nominations needed to compete for an Academy appointment.
Rachel left the interview still believing the odds were against her.
Then the phone rang.
She had received a congressional nomination.
In February 2023, another opportunity arrived: an offer to attend the United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School.
Rachel accepted.
She reported to Colorado Springs in July 2023 and began a 10-month program specifically designed to prepare cadet candidates academically, militarily, physically and as leaders for the demands of the Academy.
She flourished.
Rachel became one of the Prep School’s top cadet candidates, earned straight A’s, became a captain of the Prep School basketball team and was selected to participate in interviews highlighting the Prep School experience.
By the time she graduated in May 2024, she was ready for what cadet candidates call life “up on the hill.”
In June 2024, Rachel began Basic Cadet Training and officially started her Academy career.
Since then, she has continued to build a résumé that reflects the same drive that got her there in the first place.
Rachel is majoring in biology and hopes to pursue a career related to medicine after graduation.
Outside the classroom, her responsibilities reach across several areas of Academy life.
She serves as a manager for the Air Force football team, attending practices and assisting the defensive side of the team. On game days, she can be found on the Falcon Stadium sideline serving as a ball girl.
Rachel is also a member of the Cadet First Responder Team, providing first-response support at Academy events such as parades, graduation and other large gatherings.
More recently, she was selected to serve as the lead medical liaison for her squadron, a leadership position in which she communicates medical information and concerns to the Academy leadership.
Her Academy experience has even taken her in front of the camera.
Rachel was recently selected to participate in a video for the Academy’s new visitor center — a video her family is particularly excited to see the next time they arrive in Colorado Springs.
She is expected to graduate with the Class of 2028. Her eventual Air Force or Space Force career field has not yet been determined. She will receive her job at “Job Drops” in the spring.
Two siblings, one extraordinary experience.
Although Luke and Rachel reached the Academy by different routes, their stories now intersect every day in Colorado Springs.
Luke is on the football field.
Rachel is often standing along the sideline.
Both are balancing demanding academics with military obligations, physical training, leadership responsibilities and service.
And both remain connected to the southeast Iowa family that helped shape them.
Tom and Leslie’s parents still live in the Fort Madison area, making Luke and Rachel’s accomplishments especially meaningful to the family members and communities that watched their parents grow up.
Tom and Leslie now live in the Quad City area and are raising five children. In addition to Luke and Rachel at the Air Force Academy, their son Kyle attends the University of Northern Iowa, where he studies Construction Management. Blake is a senior at Pleasant Valley High School, and Brooke is a sophomore at Pleasant Valley.
That makes autumn weekends particularly busy.
On Friday night, Tom and Leslie cheer for Blake under the high school lights. When the schedule allows, Saturday morning means heading for the airport and Colorado Springs to watch Luke line up at right tackle for Air Force and Rachel work on the Falcons’ sideline.
Sometimes the other siblings make the trip, too.
For Tom and Leslie, the pride they feel isn’t simply about football, grades, military uniforms or accomplishments.
It is about watching their children choose difficult paths, work through adversity and continue growing into the people they hoped they would become.
Luke’s journey has included a serious injury, surgery, a frightening medical emergency and a year away from the Academy before fighting his way back.
Rachel’s began with a decision made almost on a whim — staying up until 2 a.m. to finish an application for a place she wasn’t convinced would ever accept her.
Today, brother and sister are there together.
One will graduate in 2027 and begin the next phase of his service.
The other will follow in 2028.
Two siblings. Two very different journeys. One Air Force Academy.
And behind them, one very proud southeast Iowa family.