Men's Basketball
Joey Welch
Jersey Number: 20
Class: Junior
Major: Accounting
Home Town: Stevensville, MI
High School: Lakeshore
Position: C
Height/Weight: 6-8 / 220
“Joey will be a key for our team. We are hoping he will respond this season to the expectations we have for him. Joey will need to defend, rebound, and hit the open shot. One area to improve will be his passing. I believe he will have a great year. If he does, we should have a great year.” -Coach Lightfoot
As a Sophomore (08/09)
Again playing behind William Walker, this time during a Player of the Year season, Joe saw limited action on the season. After missing the first two games of the season to injury, Joe appeared in 34 of the last 35 games, averaging only 6.9 minutes per contest.
Joe did however set personal bests in field goal percentage, rebounds, assists, steals, and points, and set career highs in every category except minutes played. He went over 100 points and finished one rebound shy of 100 for his career.
Joe scored in 17 of the games he played in and collected a rebound in 23 games. In terms of 40 minutes played per game, Joe averaged 12.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks.
In Joe’s first and only career start, he had a career game against Holy Cross on 12/9. He set career highs in points (22), rebounds (14), assists (4), steals (2), blocks (5), field goals (8-of-10), and free throws (6-of-10), and played a season-high 24 minutes.
Joe earned the team’s Most Improved Player Award, increasing his field goal percentage by 21.8%, points by 18 total, and rebounds by 11 total.
Bethel Team Most Improved Player
As a Freshman (07/08)
oe’s game took a little more time to translate into Wiekamp Athletic Center than he and the rest of the Pilots faithful would have liked. Luckily, he was learning the tricks of the trade from one of the best big men in Bethel history (William Walker).
Joe appeared in 28 games for the Pilots and averaged 2.0 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks per game in limited action. Joe only averaged 7.8 minutes per game.
If you extrapolate his stats, he averaged 10.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per 40 minutes played, easily 1st on the team in blocks and third on the team in rebounds behind Walker and Mark Lettinga.
Joe scored in double figures in two games and pulled down 5 or more rebounds in three games. His best game of the season came on the second day of the Bethel Classic, when he established career-highs in points with 15, on 7-of-10 shooting, and rebounds with 7, in 30 minutes of action against Holy Cross on 11/3. He also established a career-high in blocks against Purdue Calumet on 11/20 with 4 swats.
Joe earned the Jimmy John’s ‘Sub of the Game’ in two home games for the Pilots, against Holy Cross and IUSB, averaging 8.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.5 blocks, 1.0 steals, and 18.5 minutes per game, while shooting 63.6% from the field in those two games.