Where are they now: van Vliet playing pro ball in Netherlands
By KIRK HARDCASTLE
NIACC sports information director
Former NIACC men's basketball player Boy van Vliet has achieved a lot in the first 25 years of his life.
van Vliet, who is from the Netherlands, graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in business management from Dallas Baptist University in 2018.
He was a part of two Heartland Conference championship teams at Dallas Baptist and played in one NCAA Division II national tournament.
He was the 2019 rookie of the year in the Dutch Basketball League as a member of the Den Helder Suns.
And he's currently a member of tradition-rich Heroes Den Bosch, which also plays in the Dutch Basketball League, which is the top professional league in the Netherlands. Heroes Den Bosch owns 16 national championships, which is the most of any team in the DBL.
But van Vliet said none of that would have been possible without spending two seasons at NIACC from 2014-16.
"NIACC taught me that when you start something that you have to finish it," van Vliet said. "Eventually NIACC and the whole community was the reason I got offered by one of the most prestigious universities in Dallas, Texas to finish up my college basketball career."
After averaging 14.8 points in his senior season at Dallas Baptist, Van Vliet returned to the Netherlands to continue his basketball career at the professional level.
van Vliet, a 6-foot-4 inch shooting guard, had his 2019-20 season cut short due to COVID-19. The Dutch Basketball League decided to cancel the season on March 20.
Before the season was called off, van Vliet was recovering from ankle and knee injuries, which occurred on the same play in January.
"I partially tore my MCL in my right knee and suffered a significant bone bruise on my right ankle," said van Vliet, who was averaging 7.2 points per game before the injuries. "The medical staff said that I would most likely be sidelined 6-12 weeks.
Van Vliet said the medical staff was going to have him ready well before the initial possible 12 week prognosis.
"I was able to return to practice after 6 ½ weeks and was supposed to play in the next games, which was eight weeks after the injury happened," he said. "Unfortunately, that was the first game that was postponed and then cancelled due to COVID-19."
Heroes Den Bosch was 16-7 and sitting in third place in the nine-team Dutch Basketball League. The top four teams in the DBL qualify for the playoffs.
The regular season for the DBL was originally scheduled to be completed on May 2.
So because of COVID-19 shortening the season, van Vliet's off-season started a bit early.
"Every summer, I like to travel and find new hobbies," he said. "I was planning on mountain biking with friends a couple of weekends during this coming summer in the breath-taking Belgium Ardennes.
"Besides how much fun this is, it is also extremely good training. Unfortunately, this summer most likely will be a little different because of the situation in the world. We are going to have to make the best of it."
van Vliet views the off-season extremely important. Last summer, Van Vliet worked out in Dallas with Terrel Harris, who was a member of the 2012 NBA champion Miami Heat.
"In my opinion, the summer is where you make steps toward being a better player and hoping to make the gap between you and your opponent bigger.
"Most of the summer there are no team obligations besides a few periods of national team requirements.
"I always take strength and conditioning very seriously and get my skill work in."
vAN VLIET WAS A FIRST-TEAM ALL-REGION performer for NIACC as a sophomore in the 2015-16 season. He scored 601 points his sophomore campaign, which ranks 12th on NIACC's all-time single-season list.
van Vliet scored 816 career points as a Trojan, which ranks 28th on the school's career scoring list. He connected on 100 3-point goals, which is 12th on the school's career list.
As a freshman, van Vliet averaged seven points a game.
As a sophomore, van Vliet averaged 19.4 points per game.
"He obviously put in a great amount of time between his first and second year at NIACC," NIACC coach Mark Mohl said.
van Vliet said the highlight of his basketball career at NIACC came in the 2015-16 season when the Trojans upset No. 13 Southwestern 66-62 on the road in the opening round of the NJCAA Region XI tournament.
"We won that game because everybody on the team pitched in and played extremely well," van Vliet said.
The Trojans also won that game because of Van Vliet, who scored 35 points, including six 3-point goals. He also contributed five rebounds and three steals.
He also spent some time in the locker room with a bloody nose.
"We went to the locker room and she (Southwestern's athletic trainer) did something with my nose and I think she popped it a little bit," van Vliet was quoted as saying in the Globe Gazette in 2016. "I was out of the game for like a minute and a half."
van Vliet also has plenty of off-the-court memories in his time at NIACC.
"There are so many non-basketball memories," he said. "Trips to Minneapolis (Twins, Timberwolves, Mall of America), the extreme snow storms, Pasta Bella dinners, freshman year second-semester move to the new dorms, after season pickup games with the Internationals vs. the Americans, hours of pools games in the dorms with Angus Fischer and James Wanjara."
van Vliet also spoke highly of the NIACC men's basketball coaching staff that at the time consisted of Mohl and assistant coaches Kyle Cooper and Jeremy Winters.
"Coach Mohl always trusted me and gave me the opportunity my sophomore year to lead the team vocally on and off the court," Van Vliet said. "Coach Cooper always used to text me 'want to get extra shots up?' and we would be doing so on our off days.
"Coach Winters was the coach I saw the most since he also worked in the dorms and was always in for a chat."
And it wasn't just the coaches that had an impact on van Vliet at NIACC.
"Bridget Schultz, Dan Mason, Todd Ciochetto have also helped me a ton during my time at NIACC," he said, "and even after when I visit.
"Also friends, families and my teammates I have had the opportunity to get to share these years with will always be cherished by me. With most of them, I am fortunate enough to still be in contact with now and again."