PELLA—The sounds echoing from P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium were so constant they became white noise to Central College's athletics department staff.
           
A basketball rattling around a rim. Shoes pounding the wooden game floor.
           
It was always Thomas Spoehr (senior, Bennington, Neb.). He didn't yet know that his playing career would soon take an abrupt and unexpected turn or that three years later his eyes would instead be fixed squarely on what most viewed as a long-shot berth in the shot put at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships. He didn't yet know the dream he was eventually denied would birth a new challenge that was potentially even more rewarding, that he would emerge scarred but stronger, wiser and better-equipped for the road ahead.
       

Back then, Spoehr was consumed by basketball. He was in the gym before class, after class, mornings, evenings. It's possible he slept there. No one stayed in the building late enough to check.             

Staff members didn't even have to peer through the narrow windows on the gymnasium floor doors to see who was there.
           
"You knew it was Thomas," said former Dutch men's basketball coach Craig Douma.. "There wasn't any question that Thomas was the guy working out. He was there multiple times during the day."
           
He wasn't just test-driving new dunks or hoisting 3-point shots, either. Defensive shuffles, post moves, cone drills, muscle-straining box jumps and wind sprints. High speed, high intensity. Workouts that would make a drill sergeant beam, leaving Spoehr's sweat-drenched tank top clinging to his skin. Coaches had lofty expectations for the 6-foot-6 post player. Spoehr was driven to exceed them.
           
"He worked at all the aspects of basketball that most players aren't working on," Douma said.
           
Associate head track and field coach Jim Fuller and his son, Drew, sometimes stopped at the gym on Sundays after church. Fuller would pause and watch Spoehr doing tip drills by himself.
           
"I pointed that out to my son," Fuller said. "'Hey, see that guy over there? See what he's doing? If you want to be good, those are the kinds of things you've got to do.' Thomas just works at it. That's kind of the way he's put together. It's like, 'OK, that's what I've got to do? Let's go do it."
           

The dream begins
As a seventh grader in Nebraska, Spoehr attended a summer basketball camp. A college coach watched the kid with the goofy-looking sweat band on his head. He told Spoehr he didn't know what to make of the sweat band but that he was going to be a college basketball player someday. The coach's prediction became his inspiration, and his dream was realized at Central, when he was a part-time starter as a freshman in 2018-19. But that was only the start. Spoehr was poised for a breakout year in 2019-20. At a season-opening tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, Spoehr erupted for 26 points against Case Western Reserve University (Ohio). He rained in 28 the next night against Greenville College (Ill.). He shot a scorching 77.4% from the field. Spoehr was on his way.
           
"He had huge potential," Douma said. "I think he would have been a three-time all-conference player. The way he started his sophomore year, you couldn't stop him. He probably would have broken some records. It's all because he worked so hard and put so much time into the game."
           
Douma appreciated gym rats. The son of a college coach, he grew up as one and the Northwestern College (Iowa) record book is filled with testaments to the thousands of shots he put up in solo workouts. But he'd never encountered a player like Spoehr.
           
"Thomas is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen," Douma said. "He got closer to his potential than anybody that I've ever seen in basketball."
           
But suddenly the basketball stopped bouncing. The early mornings dawned and Kuyper Gym was silent. A concussion shattered Spoehr's basketball career and with it, his dream.               
           
Concussions aren't common in basketball but Spoehr played with the accelerator to the floor, like a one-man demolition derby.
           
"I like to say if you're not bumping up against somebody in the paint, then you're not playing the game right," Spoehr said.
           
There was no alternative, he insisted. Yet he knew careening off defenders and lunging headfirst after loose balls came with risks.
           
"I'm 6-6, but in college basketball, that's not that tall," he said. "And so to be a five man (post) at 6-6, you have to be scrappy, you have to do things that other people aren't willing to do. I think ultimately that was my demise in some ways because I was so physical and I'm going to push you off the block because that's what I had to do to be competitive. But, you know, I wouldn't have played the game any other way."
           
Concussions suffered in high school were followed by another at Central as that sophomore season launched. Central's athletic training staff swiftly gave him the harsh news that he needed to end his basketball career. Doctors agreed.
           
Spoehr felt crushed and confused. Maybe even misled. He was always taught that hard work paid off. He believed that. Until he didn't. Spoehr's solution to any problem was to work still harder. But there was no workout that could put him back on the playing floor.
           
"He lost the ability to do what he loved to do," Douma said. "It almost didn't seem fair because he cared so much. It was hard for him, but he had a lot of support from his teammates and from us as coaches. His parents were great and there were a lot of people at the college who had his best interest at heart, talked to him and cared for him to help him through it."
           
To Spoehr, it was a bad breakup.
           
"There were two weeks straight that I cried every day, like every single day, just sobbing," he admitted.
           
It's only a game. Spoehr gets that. He's a mathematics major who was selected for Central's Emerging Scholars Program. He completed a capstone senior honors thesis and is among six Central seniors who will graduate with honors this weekend, so his priorities are in order. Yet basketball was his identity.
           
"Coach Douma said I could have been a three-time all-conference player and I could have been a 1,000-point scorer and if we made a run in the national tournament, I could have been all-American," Spoehr said. "That meant a lot but at the same time I think people around Central realized it was never about that for me. Basketball was therapy. It was how I expressed myself. And I like to think that I tried to do it the right way. And I hope other people saw that as well. I never did it to get accolades. I was just trying to be the best that I could be."
           
Spoehr's eyes moisten yet again as he thinks back. He has to pause, softly getting the words out.
           
"I look at that time when I got to play and I look at the work I put in, I look at everything I did to play the game right," he said. "When I couldn't play anymore, it was heartbreaking. But I look back at it now a year-and-a-half later, I did everything I could."
           
Looking for a new challenge
Yet Spoehr's default mode is relentless optimism. He knew he needed a new focus. Still, he felt lost.
           
"You wondered how he could channel all his energy," Douma said. "Basketball was a passion for him, so I did worry. But I also didn't worry because he's an excellent young man that does such a good job in the classroom and we knew he would focus on what's most important overall, his personal health and his mental health for the future. We did a lot of talking about that."
           
Fuller, a nationally recognized multi-events coach, looked at Spoehr's powerful athletic frame and saw a potential javelin thrower. He stopped Spoehr after a class and pitched the idea to him. Spoehr was hesitant but agreed to give it a trial run on a Sunday afternoon with Fuller's wife, Brenda Fuller, a Central assistant who helps coach throwing events.
           
The session was a revelation--that Spoehr is not a javelin thrower. But then Fuller asked him to think about the weight events.                                                                                                        
           
"I picked up the discus and the shot and really fell in love," Spoehr said. "I always loved the weight room but then had trouble keeping the pounds off me (from weightlifting) because you can only be so heavy and play basketball. But they let me keep putting on the muscle, keep putting on good weight and things kind of came together for me."
          
 He began working with Dutch track and field assistant Allen Walz, a former Division I all-American in the weight throw at the University of Northern Iowa.
           
"When we first started, it was pretty ugly," Walz said. "He wouldn't admit that he didn't have a lot of natural flow. So he's had to work really hard to get to where he's at. He's put in the work in the weight room and puts in a lot of repetitions. He's just a sponge, he soaks up everything. We haven't got it perfected yet, but he's leaps and bounds ahead of where he was even a year ago."
           
There's so much to learn but details are fuel for Spoehr.
           
"We obviously talk about being a student-athlete and all of our kids do a good job but I think Thomas spends as much time in this building as he does in the classroom so for him, it's like another major, a passion," head track and field coach Brandon Sturman said. "He studies the craft, wants to continue to learn and he's really focused on the little things that make you better."
           
A crash course
Launching a throwing career as an upperclassman is the athletics equivalent of learning German in 30 days. But say it can't be done and Spoehr will fire back, "Hold my Gatorade."
           
"In some ways I love it more (than basketball) because now I'm trying to play catch-up," he said. "I'm trying to see, hey, how good can I get in this little period of time. And I love that. Let's play catch-up and let me see how I can outwork you for these two years or whatever I put in to track and field."
           
Spoehr jacked up his routine in the weight room, setting the school's hang clean record of 415 pounds. But he also had to learn that in hurling a weight implement, more is not always better.
           
"The biggest challenge we've had with Thomas is having him realize that sometimes too much can be detrimental," Sturman said. "It's trying to take that energy and focus and really be specific with it and make sure that he doesn't overdo it."
           
That message is slowly sinking in.
           
"It's not like bouncing the basketball," Spoehr said. "You can shoot forever. But if you throw 60 times, you're going to hurt yourself. So that's honestly the hardest part for me with track."
           
Am I going to be any good at this?
He's made a steady progression. After placing eighth in the indoor conference shot put last year, he was fourth this past winter. At last year's outdoor league meet, he was eighth in both the shot put and the discus and he's expected to vault higher at the conference meet at Dubuque Friday and Saturday. Yet Spoehr can be impatient with the process.
           
"One day last year he asked me, 'Am I going to be any good at this?.'" Fuller said. "And I said, well, listen, you're going into meets against guys that have had thousands of throws and you haven't had 100 yet. It's going to take some time but, yes, I think you can be competitive. I don't know how high of a level you can get to but you have the tools, you just have not had a lot of reps throwing. And he kind of took that to heart. With Thomas, it's, 'OK, if that's what I need to do, that's what I need to do.'"
           
Yet the frustrations and challenges are what Spoehr savors. He takes little satisfaction in empty victories, and doesn't view competition as a zero-sum endeavor, much preferring pumping up an opponent over staring one down. Fuller recalled watching him at a recent meet.
           
"There was a kid that walked in the ring from a different school," Fuller said. "And Thomas yells out the kid's name and says, 'You got this! Let's go!' I really like that you can cheer for your opponent, hope that they do their best and still hope that you do your best and it's better. He is not ever going to wish poorly on anybody. He wants everyone around him to do well and he's just going to try to do better than them. I like that."
           
At the American Rivers indoor meet, Spoehr threw a personal best, putting him temporarily in second place, only to have three other throwers hit their personal bests and pass him in the standings. That left Spoehr even more determined—yet smiling.
           
"I was left off the podium, but I was really happy for those guys because you put a lot of work in, but other people put a lot of work in, too, and they threw their best that day," he said. "I also threw my best but it wasn't quite enough. But the good news is there's an outdoor meet so I get one more try and I'm excited for that. But if I'm going to beat somebody, I want to beat them at their best. There's no point in beating somebody unless they're doing their absolute best and you are, too.
           
"I always like to say, sports are important but being a human is important, too."
           
Spoehr is learning to appreciate the more subtle rhythms of track and field. Throughout what masquerades as spring in Iowa, as the small cluster of throwers, officials and onlookers huddle while the brisk winds blow on yet another gray, dishrag of a Saturday, Spoehr not only provides energy but draws it. He eagerly awaits the league outdoor championships this weekend.
           
"Basketball games are special because every single game matters but track meets for me are totally different," he said. "They're a little slower. But I love the conference meets. This will only be my fourth and I just love that atmosphere. I live for that. I live for the moments when you get to put it together and you find out pretty quickly who's got that edge and who doesn't. We only get six throws. I live for that. I live to compete. I live to keep on pushing and the grind and then ultimately put it together at the end."
           
Bringing the juice
Spoehr brings out the best in teammates as well. Watch the practice session warm-ups with the Dutch men's and women's throwers as Spoehr arrives. The music comes on. There's laughing, clapping, high-fiving. And always grinding.
           
"He's just a big, goofy guy," Sturman said. "He gets along with everybody. Always smiling, making jokes. He definitely creates an energy. Throwers in general always have their own little quirky, unique atmosphere but he definitely adds to that."
           
Spoehr calls it bringing the juice.
           
"I had a coach one day say, 'If you're not feeling it, fake it,'" he said." Because you either bring it up or you bring it down and I want to be one of those people who's bringing it up every day. Life, like I've experienced the past four years, is hard at times. Well, make it a little bit easier for somebody else then. If you're not helping somebody, then you're doing something wrong. But if you're helping bring the juice, if you're helping bring in the energy and you're making somebody else's day better, by that you're hopefully making your own day better and that's me. I've got to bring the energy and I'm always a smile, I'm always a hug away, a high-five away and let's get rolling."
           
He gets coaches rolling as well.
           
"He brings that element of laughter and just kind of puts a smile on your face," Walz said. "There are a lot of days where I'll get to practice and it's been a long day in the office and I get there and he just has a way of softening the hard exterior. He just gets you smiling and gets you going."
          
And his team connections aren't limited to the throwers.
           
"He knows everybody on the team and that's hard to do in track," Fuller said. "You know, the throwers know the throwers, the multis know the multis, the sprinters know the sprinters, but they don't all get to know each other. Thomas knows everybody. That's a great example for everybody else that he takes the time to get to know you. He's incredibly supportive."
           
The feeling is mutual with teammates who helped him get voted to Central's homecoming royalty last fall and roared with approval when Spoehr was announced as the Male Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year at the campus Dutchies event April 24.
           
An academics grinder
Spoehr attacks class assignments with the same intensity he brings to a 6 a.m. strength workout, carrying a 3.75 grade point average with a mathematics major that he thinks fits his persona.
           
"(Former strength and conditioning assistant Charles Friday) said how you do anything is how you do everything and I completely buy into that," Spoehr said. "The little things have to be done correctly and that goes in the classroom. I mean, math is a tough subject. I'm not naturally a whiz the way some people are. But that's part of the reason I love it is it's a grind, too.
           
"I had a real analysis test. We had an out-of-class portion and we had to solve four problems. They were difficult problems; this is Math 451. I spent eight hours just looking at these things, trying to decipher what to do. And I love that. That's time well spent for me."
           
Spoehr is heading to graduate school at Minnesota State University, Mankato next year.
           
"I think I'd like to maybe become a math professor someday," he said. "I'm going to get a master's in math and see where that takes me. If that continues to go well, I might go for the Ph.D. Or maybe I'll end up in a K-12 classroom. You can change lives there, too."
           
With athletics eligibility remaining, Spoehr hopes to continue throwing for the Division II Mavericks. Walz is confident in his ability to make the transition as Spoehr is nowhere near his ceiling.
           
"I don't think he's really even touched it yet as far as what he can accomplish," Walz said. "He's finally getting to the point where he really understands body positioning and where he needs to be technique-wise but he's still slow in developing to get to the point where he needs to be to throw. As he continues to get quicker through the ring and more explosive all the way through the throw, he's going to see bigger results. It just takes time and repetition to get to that point."
           
But Spoehr isn't giving up on his big goals at Central. He wants to get to the NCAA national meet while wearing the Dutch uniform. Getting there in the shot put will be a heavy lift. His career-best throw is 48 feet, 0.75 inches. He'll have to top at least 50 feet to even be in the mix. Spoehr is undaunted.
           
"I had one in warmups at Simpson that would have put me in nationals but I've just got to put it together in a meet," he said. "It'll get there."
           
Spoehr already has a vision of how the story ends. It's vivid to him as it plays endlessly in his mind, and in moments of frustration, he reminds himself of the dream.
           
"I don't know if it will happen or not but I think about it a lot," Spoehr said. "But I'd love to go to the national meet and I always envision hugging Coach Brenda Fuller and Coach Walz after I'm an all-American there. That would mean the absolute world to end it there because I was handed this really tough situation, but sometimes with lemons, you make lemonade. It would have been great to be a three-time all-conference basketball player but it would be even cooler to be a shot put all-American."
           
It's not the same dream he had, but Spoehr is also not the same person he was. And he's grateful.
           
"Has it worked out the way I wanted it to when I was 18 years old?," Spoehr said. "No. I thought I would come in and be an all-conference basketball player. But now that I'm 22, I look back and it absolutely went better than I could have expected. I came here for athletics and I got a great education. I was an 18-year-old kid looking at the basketball program and I stumbled upon some great professors, people that inspired me for a lifetime. And athletically, I learned more about myself by losing basketball than I ever would have had I been a three-time all-conference player. In 20 years, I could tell people I was an all-conference player but there won't be too many people that care. But the lessons I learned when I lost basketball, then gained in track and field and how to deal with that loss, that will serve me a lifetime."