Joel had 5 points and 4 rebounds on Tuesday against Missouri State
To begin our basketball spotlight series we caught up with fifth year senior, Joel Vander Pol. The 6’10” center has played significant time his entire career for the Flames making 92 appearances thus far. We were able to get his thoughts on his Liberty experience over the past five years
Joel explained his time at Liberty has taught him lessons he will be able to use later in life. “People I’ve met with and experiences I’ve had to deal with just make you more prepared to handle situations off the court,” he told us, “(Coach Joyce) is always telling us how certain situations in athletics are applicable to real life.”
This year he will be sharing time with another senior center, JR Coronado. He believes the depth will give them an advantage over their opponents. “There’s going to be games where JR has a rhythm, and I might just not be feeling it that night, or vice versa. Throughout the course of the season you’re going to have nights where you’re not really feeling it, and that’s when depth is really good.” The Flames definitely have plenty of depth down low with 4 players all getting at least 14 minutes at the 4 and 5 positions thus far.
Vander Pol has been one of the Flames more consistent players through the years, and he has compiled some nice career numbers, including 342 career rebounds, 61 blocks, and 402 points with most of his final season still ahead of him.
After last year’s late season run, the Flames have struggled out of the gates in 2013. Vander Pol gave us a very honest look at what has happened. “We maybe expected things to just pick up where they left off, that’s our fault,” he said. “It has been somewhat eye opening, we probably thought we were just going to walk into some games, you can’t just walk into games, you have to fight for every single win.” Joel said he fully expects the Flames to return to last season’s form and get back on track. “We have the same guys here, I’m looking forward to it. I think we can get back to where we were.”
Hopefully Vander Pol is on to something and the Flames will find themselves as they take on Hampton tomorrow. We’d like to thank Joel for his time and wish him the best in his senior year.
