Tom Spöler

Tom Spöler
Player information
Full name	Tom-Gerhard Spöler
birthday	April 14, 1988
place of birth	Coesfeld, Germany
size	206 cm
position	Center / Power Forward
Clubs as active
2004–2010 Bayer Giants Leverkusen 2008–2010 → Giants Düsseldorf 2010–2011 GiroLive-Ballers Osnabrück 2011–2014 BBC Bayreuth

Tom-Gerhard Spöler (born April 14, 1988 in Coesfeld ) is a former German basketball player . The former junior selection and A2 national player was trained together with his twin brother Ben Spöler in the youth teams of the German record champions Bayer Giants Leverkusen and initially played with a double license in the first division team of Giants Düsseldorf until 2010 . After a season with the second division club from Osnabrück , Tom Spöler played for three years with the first division BBC medi Bayreuth before ending his professional sports career.

Career

Tom Spöler and his twin brother took his first steps in club basketball in Borken before they played successfully in the Hertener Löwen youth teams. From there they were won for the youth program of the German record champions Bayer Giants Leverkusen. As a result, they were trained with the school team of the Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium from Opladen under teacher and trainer John Ecker 2005 national tournament winners among youth for the Olympics . After Ben had already played with the German U18 national youth team, Tom initially missed his return to the circle of the 16 best European teams in Division A with the U20 junior selection in 2007. In 2008 he was able to correct this with the U20 selection in the group B tournament . A year earlier, in 2007, he and his brother Ben had been promoted to the squad of the Bayer Giants' first division team with a double license , for which both had their first brief appearances in the 2007/08 basketball division .

In 2008, the first division license from Leverkusen was sold to Düsseldorf , so that the professional Giants team under coach Achim Kuczmann moved almost completely down the Rhine. Tom Spöler saw more working time than his twin brother, similar to the consideration for German national teams in the top men's division. As the Düsseldorf Giants, however, the team slipped out of the play-off places and at the end of the 2009/10 basketball Bundesliga even only occupied one relegation place. The league was ensured by acquiring a wildcard , but there was a real break with Leverkusen's previous history in 2010 when the Giants' coach and management changed completely. The Spöler twins also separated and Tom joined the second division club GiroLive-Ballers from Osnabrück, who, however , had their license revoked a few weeks before the end of the ProA 2010/11 season and who had to stop playing. After his first participation in a Universiade 2011 with the A2 national team, Tom Spöler got a contract for the basketball Bundesliga 2011/12 with the previous year's climber from Bayreuth , who was able to improve slightly to 13th place in the table after twelve wins this season. After another Universiade participation, Spöler achieved 14 wins of the season with the Bayreuthers in the 2012/13 season, which only reached 15th place in the final table. With eleven wins, however, it was enough for 14th place in the table in the 2013/14 season . Under the new coach Michael Koch , however, Spöler was ousted in the third season for Bayreuth after a shoulder injury by Phillipp Heyden and only made ten short appearances of less than ten minutes per game.

After Spöler's contract was not renewed in 2014, Tom Spöler concentrated on a career in marketing at a subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG in Hamburg . The planned commitment of his parent club Bayer Giants Leverkusen, for which his twin brother Ben was already active again after their return to the second-highest division ProA , did not come about.

Web links

• easyCredit BBL - Tom Spoeler - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• Tom Spöler - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spöler twins in the professional squad. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , June 27, 2007, accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
2. ↑ District Administrator Lucas high school students are German champions in school basketball. (No longer available online.) District Administrator-Lucas-Gymnasium , May 2005, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Germany Capture Division B Gold. FIBA Europa , August 11, 2008, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Matthias Goergens: Spöler twins fight for regular places. Westdeutsche Zeitung , October 13, 2009, accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Player Statistics - Tom Spöler. Basketball Bundesliga , accessed on May 15, 2015 (profile on statistics pages).  
6. ↑ Tom Spöler. (No longer available online.) LinkedIn , formerly the original ; accessed on May 15, 2015 (personal profile).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ↑ Good news before the vacation: twin brother in sight. (No longer available online.) Leverkusener Anzeiger , July 4, 2014, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 15, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.