Forward progress for Vander Pol
Joel Vander Pol knows the work he’s put into this season. Now, he’s ready to see that hard work pay off
Listed at 6’10,” 230 lbs., redshirt sophomore Joel Vander Pol brings to the table a lofty perspective for what is widely considered an undersized Liberty Flames men’s basketball team.
Stretch — Joel Vander Pol’s near-seven-foot wingspan forces defenders elsewhere. Photo credit: Nate Brown
Vander Pol graduated from Evangelical Christian, Fort Myers, Fla. where he averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds per game, in 2009. At Evangelical, he earned all-state, all-star and all-area honors, while being nominated for Florida’s Mr. Basketball award.
In 2010, a thinner, unpolished Vander Pol arrived at Liberty University with high hopes but no idea what to expect. One thing that he was sure of was that his coach would be the man who recruited him, Dale Layer, rather than Ritchie McKay, who left the university prior to the season, chasing an assistant coaching job at the University of Virginia.
When given a choice by the Flames’ new head coach, Layer, Vander Pol decided to redshirt his freshman year in order to take the time to adjust to the transition between high school and college basketball.
“The main difference for me transitioning was the speed of the game and the fact that everyone is just a lot stronger,” Vander Pol said. “On my official visit here, we played pickup and that’s when I realized the difference in the speed of the game.”
As a redshirt freshman in 2011, Vander Pol, with an additional 15 pounds of muscle, appeared in 31 games, starting in 16 of them. The young player averaged 4.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, finishing third on the team in blocks with 21.
“What Coach Layer does is coach to players’ strengths,” Vander Pol said. “He’ll see what a player can do well, and he will try to coach them to make that a strength.”
Coming into his third season, Vander Pol knew that his role would most likely expand with the loss of John Brown and Sommy Ogukwe, two players who spent much of their respective games on the boards.
“With the loss of Sommy and John Brown, we lost a lot of confident rebounding,” Vander Pol said. “(Brown) covered up a lot of mistakes that our team made, and we didn’t realize how much he did until we lost him.”
Vander Pol has appeared in 17 games so far, averaging 4.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
“I don’t know if there’s another team in the league that works as hard as we do. Our conference record in no way reflects our work ethic or our dedication to winning,” Vander Pol said.
With 11 games to go before the team heads into the Big South tournament, the Flames will look to improve on a disappointing season.
“I really like the way the team is playing heading down the stretch when it really matters,” he said. “If we can tune things up as we continue conference play, I think we can be a dangerous team heading into the tournament.”