On March 10, 2019, Trevor Spangenberg made history.

Selected in the Birmingham Legion FC starting XI against Bethlehem Steel FC, Spangenberg became the first-ever goalkeeper to represent the Three Sparks in a competitive matchup. But the journey to that landmark was far from straightforward.

From finding success at a tiny public school in Indiana, suffering a potential career-ending injury in college and navigating the unstable American soccer landscape, the odds never seemed particularly favorable for Spangenberg.

“Coming from this small school, Boone Grove, it just doesn’t happen,” Brian Sherwin, his high school soccer coach, said of the likelihood of a school alumni making it to the professional ranks. “It really hasn’t happened at Boone Grove, but it happened this one time.”

If you talk to those who have witnessed Spangenberg’s career throughout the years, you’ll quickly learn none of the roadblocks were going to stop him. It was just about finding the way around them.

Described almost unanimously as a mentality monster who would outwork any of his peers, Trevor Spangenberg had a goal and knew how to achieve it.

“His mentality and mindset is what allowed him to become a professional in the first place, and then again his mentality and mindset has allowed him to continue to be a professional and be out-competing over the years and remain at that level,” Jack Roberts, a former teammate of Spangenberg’s, said. “His mindset, professionalism and his ability to deal with setbacks is just really, really, really high-level.”

Finding his place

Born in Mesa, Arizona, on April 21, 1991, Trevor Spangenberg’s family relocated to Valparaiso, Indiana, early on in his childhood. It was there that he grew up, found his love of soccer and eventually joined the Boone Grove High School varsity team in 2005.

At just 14-years-old — a high school freshman — Spangenberg joined a soccer program that had just lost its starting goalkeeper to graduation. The future Legion-man earned the number one spot in his stead, despite being one of only a handful of freshmen to even make the team.

He went on to play every game that season between the sticks, and did the same the next three years.

“It was definitely eye-opening,” Spangenberg said. “That jump from when you’re a freshman in high school to being a senior in high school, those four years feel like kid to man, really.

“My whole limited career before that, I was always playing with my own age group,” he continued. “So that was the first time going into high school where I was ever playing up with older kids. That was a little bit of adjustment, more so just, maybe not so much the size — I was tall already as a freshman — but just your presence as a goalkeeper.

“My entire back four in that freshman year were all juniors and seniors. It was like, ‘how do you really get the respect from guys when they just see you as the kid, you know?’ But it comes. You have to just go out, you play, you perform, you earn it that way.”

In addition to time spent playing club soccer, Spangenberg did have one advantage coming in. The team’s head coach, Brian Sherwin, was also his neighbor, and the two had already formed a relationship prior to the youngster’s freshman season. Sherwin had coached Spangenberg’s middle school track team — where he won a conference championship — and their familiarity with each other meant Spangenberg had already been hanging around the high school soccer team before he ever set foot on the campus as a student.

When Spangenberg tried out for the team, Sherwin already knew he would make it. The only question was in what position. The goalkeeper’s club-career meant he was just as skilled on the ball, if not more so, than many of the outfield players as well.

Ultimately, it came down to Spangenberg’s desire to be between the sticks. After years of playing multiple positions, in addition to his time on Sherwin’s track team, among other sports, the shotstopper said he was “sick of the running.” Spangenberg described his younger self as a “moron” for running the mile and the 400, the latter of which he remembers as “one of the worst races you could ever do, because you just got to try to sprint the whole thing.”

Track had never been a passion, but more of an opportunity to spend time with friends. Once he reached high school and it was time to lock into his preferred sport, he knew where he wanted to be.

“I was over the running,” Spangenberg said. “I just wanted to be hanging out back there, and that’s where I found the true passion.”

Hard work pays off

It didn’t take long for a 14-year-old Trevor Spangenberg to prove he had his place in that Boone Grove High School goal.

In his first season playing varsity soccer, the freshman made a remarkable 113 saves.

Sherwin said Boone Grove’s season usually ended once the roughly 500 students-strong school had to face significantly larger institutions in the playoffs. The 2005 season was no different, ending on a 3-0 loss to eventual champions Valparaiso.

But even in that game, Spangenberg showed just how good he could be with 16 saves to keep the scoring respectable.

“He came in and filled the goal,” Sherwin recalled. “It was just amazing how well he did.”

All-in-all, Spangenberg’s freshman year saw him keep eight shutouts and concede just 19 goals — that’s an average of six saves for every goal conceded. Despite his young age, his individual heroics resulted in the first of two team MVP awards.

None of it came from chance.

As Spangenberg’s neighbor in addition to his coach, Sherwin had unique insight into his young goalkeeper’s work ethic. He still remembers seeing him in his backyard after practices, where his dad, the team’s assistant coach at the time, would often put him through a second, and even third, session that same day.

Spangenberg had set up a light in his backyard to keep practicing late into the night. He explained it was attached to a basketball extension line he had mounted on his backyard fence, giving him a 25-30 foot radius of light where he could juggle or kick the ball into his kickback.

“Weather didn’t keep him from practicing, he was just determined,” Sherwin said. “And the work he put in, you could really see it pay off. The way he grew and got stronger over the seasons, he put in the work.”

As the years went by, Spangenberg’s abilities grew, and so did his reputation. Even though the other area teams might not have known his name, Sherwin said they started being aware of “that Boone Grove ‘keeper.”

In 2007, Spangenberg’s junior year, the team won the Northwest Indiana Soccer Conference. In the net, Boone Grove’s shotstopper conceded just 10 goals while keeping 10 clean sheets.

But even with the growing accolades, it was always going to be hard for a player from such a small school as Boone Grove to find their way to the pro ranks.

Spangenberg knew that, and he had a plan.

“[Going pro] was always the goal, it’s a lot of kids’ goal,” Spangenberg said. “For me, I would always say that, but the first step I knew was to go to a college that would set me up to do that. So it was like, here is the lofty dream goal, but there’s steps that have to happen before that.

“So I was very realistic about that,” he continued. “I really focused on going to prep camps and camps during the summer, at colleges, when I was in high school for that reason, like getting in front of them and trying to find my way in. I knew that that was the only way I was going to get there.”

“I always feel like it takes a lot of work, and I think some great timing and there’s a little bit of luck involved on being noticed or being at the right place, at the right time, or having the right game at the right time,” Sherwin added. “But Trevor did everything to line those things up. It wasn’t dumb luck by any means. He put himself in those positions to be seen, to be noticed, to be everything that he wanted to be.”

His efforts eventually led him to a prep camp at the University of Notre Dame. Spangenberg had spoken to coaches from Missouri State University prior to attending and knew that Michael Seabolt, the current head coach for the Bears’ men’s soccer program and one of the assistants at the time, would be there. The two were able to connect and exchange over several days, and Seabolt got to witness not just Spangenberg’s gameday performances, but how he trained.

After the camp, Spangenberg received an invitation to tour Missouri State. It was the only college he ended up visiting, as his mind was quickly made up.

“I went there, and I was just sold,” Spangenberg said. “It [was] exactly what I want[ed] to be a part of. I walked into the coach’s office on that Sunday after the visit was concluded and I told them this is where I want to come.

“As a freshman goalie, you’re not going to get offered a full ride scholarship,” he added. “So I said ‘I don’t care what you guys give me in the beginning here, but I want to come here’ and they’re like, ‘Great because we want to have you.’ And so that just kicked it off.”

Before he could join the DI program, Spangenberg had to return to Indiana to see out his high school career. Far from resting on his laurels now that his immediate future was secured, he and the team had their best season of his four years there.

Out of 16 games in 2008, Boone Grove won 15. Spangenberg captained the side, made 55 saves, registered 12 clean sheets and conceded just five goals. The team won the Porter County Conference, and Spangenberg received his second team MVP award, as well as All-Area and All-Conference First Team recognition.

“It was very impressive,” Sherwin said. “Not only did he take control of the goal, but he had 100% control of his defense all the time. I had full confidence in him back there.”

That spring, Spangenberg graduated and departed for Springfield, Missouri. Sherwin continued to coach another decade and a half before calling time on his coaching career last year. In that time, his former player and neighbor did not go forgotten in Boone Grove.

Sherwin said he kept a signed photo of Spangenberg in his office, and many players throughout the years have grown curious about their predecessor as a result. The school also exhibits one of his jerseys in a glass case along with other bits of Spangenberg memorabilia to honor one of their most famous alumni.

A new challenge

Joining Missouri State was a new challenge in many ways for Trevor Spangenberg.

Not only was he joining an elite, DI soccer program, training every day with some of the best young players in the nation, but he also had to learn a new skill: patience. After going four years as Boone Grove’s undisputed starter, Spangenberg redshirted his freshman year of college.

For the first time in his career, he was training every day without the motivation or reward of a game at the weekend.

“It took a little adjusting, but at the same time it was such a big jump going into that environment,” Spangenberg said. “That program’s always been run very professionally. […] You’re living with the guys, you’re eating with the guys, it was like full-time. So that was a big adjustment, and I think I was so focused on that — I was just happy to be there — that I didn’t have time to think ‘what a bummer, I’m not playing.’

“I was just there soaking it up,” he added. “It was just all about adapting, getting used to the environment and just college in general.”

Spangenberg did not feature for the Bears in his first season in Missouri and made just one appearance in his second. The hard work never stopped, however, as even the summers saw him honing his skills. He took advantage of the offseason by joining up with Premier Development League (what is now USL League Two) clubs Laredo Heat, Des Moines Menace and Springfield Demize.

“The thing that always stood out about Trevor is — and I think he’d even be the first to say so — if you had to pick a room full of goalkeepers in college soccer at the time, he wouldn’t necessarily have been the most talented,” Jack Roberts, a teammate of Spangenberg’s at college and for the Demize, said. “But he was so hard-working. He would outwork anyone.

“He always wanted to train,” Roberts continued. “He always wanted to be in the weight room. He always wanted to try and find ways to improve. It was a time when athletes weren’t maybe quite as advanced and serious as they are now as far as nutrition and things, and he was really interested in finding ways to find the extra edge and finding ways to just get better.”

In 2011, the hard work paid off as Spangenberg finally got his break at the collegiate level, starting 19 games with a record of 9-8-2. With 18 goals conceded, his 0.93 goals against average was, at the time, the third-best in program history. He notably kept six shutouts, including one against No. 4 Creighton, Missouri State’s first-ever win against a top five opponent. He also received Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors on two occasions.

That should have been the first of three exciting years for Spangenberg in Springfield, but it was not to be.

That summer, while playing for Springfield Demize, Spangenberg traveled to Colorado for an away game. When the opposition lofted a long ball over his defense, Spangenberg raced out to clear ahead of an oncoming forward. While he connected with the ball, his opponent did not and snapped the goalkeeper’s leg instead.

A freak accident, and one that could easily have signaled the end of Spangenberg’s career.

“I cannot depict what he went through to come back and play,” Jonathan Leamy, Missouri State’s head men’s soccer coach at the time, said. “I’d say maybe nine out of 10 people, goalies like that or college players, they’re probably done. They’re not gonna be back, never mind play to the level he did.”

Spangenberg was rushed to the hospital to undergo surgery and did not return to Indiana for over a week. When he did, it was by train because it was not safe for him to fly. Upon his return, he underwent additional surgeries in Chicago before setting off on 9-months of grueling recovery work.

The road to recovery

College athletes can use up to two redshirts seasons (seasons where they do not play, that therefore do not count against their four years of eligibility). One option, which Trevor Spangenberg made use of in his freshman year, is for newcomers who are not expected to play in their first year. The other is an injury redshirt, which can be used if a player suffers a season-ending injury in the first few weeks of the season.

Unfortunately for Spangenberg, the latter only applies to injuries suffered in the course of NCAA-sanctioned events, whether games or practice. Because he got injured on his own time, Spangenberg was not eligible for a second redshirt, and therefore lost a year of college soccer when he injured himself. If he recovered in time for his senior season (technically his fifth year at Missouri thanks to his redshirt first year), he knew that would be his last one.

At that point, with that long road to recovery ahead of him, Spangenberg was no longer thinking about going pro. His only goal was to make it back onto the field so he could end his college career on his own terms.

“That was incredibly motivating,” Spangenberg said. “I just wanted to come back and have a senior year where I’m playing with the guys I’ve been here four years with. I was only focused on that.”

He did not hide feelings about it either, with Roberts describing him as “pissed off” about the injury and using it as motivation to get better.

But with such a serious injury as he suffered, Spangenberg had a long way to go. Before he could even dream of getting back on a soccer pitch, he needed to re-learn how to walk, let alone jog, run or kick a ball. Leamy still remembers the “amazing” time and effort his goalkeeper put into his rehabilitation. According to his head coach at the time, most people would have thrown in the towel had they been in Spangenberg’s shoes.

Not only did it take all of Spangenberg’s efforts to recover, but the experience also changed him as a person according to his then-coach.

“After that, you saw a whole different Trevor Spangenberg,” Leamy said. “You saw a kid with a joy and an appreciation for life and the ability to play the game. Sometimes we take the game for granted, it’s a chore, it’s a job — and I’m not necessarily saying this about Trevor, but in general — but he found a whole new light and appreciation of what he had.”

Spangenberg had always been a hard worker with elite focus and dedication, but his forced time on the sidelines somehow upped that even further. Leamy described it as a “totally different approach,” one that ultimately led him to become a “fantastic keeper.”

“Trevor is just a special, special kid,” Leamy said. “He’s a team guy, he’s upbeat, he’s positive. Things aren’t going right? Next day it’s gonna go right. He’s just always gonna battle, and the mental approach to what he did with his game is phenomenal. I’ve seen so many players with some pretty serious injuries and things like that, they don’t come back from something like that. They don’t. He just made it happen. It was unbelievable.”

For Roberts, what stood out most was how confident Spangenberg was in his ability to recover. According to his teammate, it was never a question of if he would be back, only of when.

“His determination to recover from that injury was just relentless,” Roberts said. “And that’s probably how I would describe him as a person, as a competitor, as a teammate. He was just relentless. He was an ultimate competitor, he just wanted to improve.

“I don’t think he was necessarily the highest recruited kid or a big, number one recruit or anything like that,” he added. “It always felt like he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, in a way, even before the injury. So it almost added to the fact that he had a chip on his shoulder. He was going to show everyone that he was good enough.”

A triumphant return

Trevor Spangenberg is now 34 and recently shared the field with teenagers like Ramiz Hamouda and Matthew Corcoran. He said he has a lot of respect for what they are able to do at such a young age, because he knows he needed his college years to mature before becoming a professional. His injury setback was part of that, but it was also just the transition to a more professional environment.

So when he finally returned for his senior season in 2013, Trevor Spangenberg was the best version of himself he had ever been.

That season, Spangenberg played every single minute in goal as the Bears won the regular season championship and went 11-5-2 overall. With just one goal conceded in conference play, he equalled the Missouri Valley Conference record for fewest goals allowed in a conference season and set one for the lowest goals against average in conference games (0.16).

“He would do stuff to put himself in the best position to always make the save,” Leamy said. “You ask Trevor, there’s not a shot he can’t save. There’s nobody that can shoot a ball that he can’t save, because that’s what he has to believe.

“That’s what you need with the goalie, that he’s ready,” he added. “That when that moment comes, they live for that, they live for that moment. That’s what Trevor does.”

The Bears were third in the entire country for goals against average at 0.41, to this day the lowest of any Missouri State goalkeeper across an entire season. His total of eight goals allowed is also the fewest a Bears goalkeeper has ever let in over the course of one season.

He also set a school-record of seven-consecutive clean sheets, and his 11 shutouts were not bested until 2022, and then only by one.

Among other awards, Spangenberg was named team MVP, First Team All-MVC, College Sports Madness Defensive Player of the Year and All-Conference Team, and NSCAA’s NCAA Division I Men’s All-Midwest Region Third Team.

“That senior year is always going to be filled with some great memories,” Spangenberg said. “It just happened so fast because of the way the season is, but when I look back on it, I’m so grateful for it. It was such a great time, so many good memories.”

The goalkeeper added that his injury was still on his mind, and remained so the rest of his career, but he refused to let it impact his approach to the game. While he does not believe any player who has suffered something similar on a soccer field can fully put the fear of a repeat out of their head, he said it was all about how he approached it.

Thankfully for Spangenberg, his injury also occurred during a play that only happens every couple of games, rather than something he had to go through every time he laced up his boots.

“I think if anyone who ever [suffered a serious on-field injury] says they don’t ever think about it, they’ve got to be lying,” Spangenberg said. “You’re always going to think about it, but you don’t let it dictate how you play, because you just can’t.

“It never affected me too much, but after the play I would sometimes think about it real quick and be like ‘dang, oof, all right, let’s go home,’” he added. “It’s just on your mind because it happens, and it can happen to anyone, but you can’t let it dictate. Then you don’t play, or you play scared. I don’t think anyone ever lets that happen, but you’re definitely thinking of it.”

During that season, the press took to referring to Spangenberg as the “orange curtain” because of the reddish-orange jersey he would wear in goal and his ability to keep so many shots out, according to Leamy. His coach and teammates credited him for his ability to organise the defense, be vocal and give everyone confidence on the field, but at the end of the day it was his raw shot-stopping ability that stood out the most.

For many, that was his “superpower.”

“He was a bit more of just an old-school goalkeeper as far as he was just an amazing shot-stopper,” Roberts said. “I even remember specific saves he made. […] Those were the kind of moments and things that made him special. It was as good as having someone at the other end of the field who could always score you a goal. You felt like you had a bit of an advantage because Trevor is going to make a big save.”

Going pro

That could have been it for Trevor Spangenberg’s soccer career, as the goalkeeper went undrafted in the 2014 MLS Superdraft despite his college achievements.

But that would be ignoring his determination to succeed.

Despite missing out during the draft, Spangenberg was invited to join up with Chivas USA, an MLS club at the time, for their preseason. On trial alongside a few other goalkeepers, Spangenberg got to play a couple of games during the team’s camp in Arizona.

He made the biggest impression out of the group and earned his first professional contract in March of that year.

Spangenberg’s first appearance in a matchday squad came on March 16, 2014, when the California side welcomed the Vancouver Whitecaps to their home. He did not make the bench again until nearly a month later, May 3, 2014, this time against Houston Dynamo.

When starting goalkeeper Tim Melia earned a red card in the 67th minute of that game, Spangenberg made an unexpected professional debut.

“I remember when he got put into his first MLS game,” Brian Sherwin said. “His dad was watching the game next door, and I get a call. I was actually laying in bed and got a call, and his dad’s like ‘you gotta get over here now, he’s going in.’ I hurried up and ran over to their house so we could watch that together. That was a super cool moment.”

Unfortunately for Spangenberg, Melia hadn’t just gotten himself sent off, he’d also given up a penalty. As such, the rookie goalkeeper’s first-ever taste of professional competitive action was to face down Dynamo’s Giles Barnes from 12 yards.

He could do nothing about the spot kick attempt, but made one big save off Will Bruin just minutes later to settle into the game. Chivas lost 4-1, but Spangenberg did not concede another goal after the penalty.

Though he did not play another minute for Chivas, Spangenberg made the bench on 20 more occasions that season, surpassing Melia as the backup to starter Dan Kennedy.

“That whole year was an unbelievable experience,” Spangenberg said. “It was just myself and Dan Kennedy, who in my eyes was an MLS legend, and he was great. And I was traveling, I was dressed, I was on the bench, so for a rookie I was just having a great time.”

Spangenberg’s one substitute appearance could never happen in today’s game, as rules have changed to prevent the “double jeopardy” that comes with sending off a goalkeeper and awarding a penalty. But he will always get to say he played at the highest level of American club soccer thanks to it.

The Wild West of American pro soccer

Trevor Spangenberg might have found a team in California, but his journey to establishing himself as a professional was far from over.

The goalkeeper had joined Chivas USA in March 2014. In October of that same year, the club ceased operations.

“You saw the writing on the wall about like halfway through the year,” Spangenberg said. “It was pretty clear the club was going to fold.”

Clubs folding is an unfortunate part of the American soccer experience, with North Carolina FC notably doing so this season in the USL Championship. While MLS clubs have generally fared better than their USL counterparts, they are not immune as Spangenberg found out, with Chivas becoming the third and most recent DI American men’s soccer team to cease operations.

As a result, it was back to square one for the young goalkeeper, who moved across the nation to try out for the New England Revolutions.

As in California, Spangenberg earned himself a permanent stay in Massachusetts following a successful trial stint. He never played for the Revolution and made just two bench appearances, but formed a couple of connections that would prove crucial to his career while in New England.

That year, he made two loan appearances for the Richmond Kickers, then in the USL Championship, but otherwise spent the entirety of the season as a practice player with the MLS side. As such, he not only developed further as a goalkeeper, but also had plenty of time to form a relationship with the club’s head coach.

At the time, the Revs were led by one Jay Heaps, Birmingham Legion’s future general manager, and assisted by one Tom Soehn, the Three Sparks’ future head coach.

Having learned as much as he could as a backup, Spangenberg moved on at the end of the season in search of regular playing time. He landed in Puerto Rico, joining Puerto Rico FC for their inaugural North American Soccer League campaign. After making the bench for the first 10 games of the season, Spangenberg got his first start on August 28, 2016 against an FC Edmonton side featuring his future teammate Matt van Oekel between the sticks.

The game ended 0-0, and Spangenberg kept the number one shirt for the rest of the year. He went on to feature 35 times over two seasons for the NASL club, his first taste of regular professional action.

“After being the third string there in New England, I was kind of chomping at the bit a little bit,” Spangenberg said. “I had such a good time in Puerto Rico, just getting a lot of games.”

Unfortunately, history soon repeated itself for Spangenberg. First, the club’s existence exhibited warning signs when a hurricane hit the island, forcing the team to relocate to Florida for the end of its second season. Shortly after, the league itself showed signs of frailty.

NASL originally postponed its 2018 season, but confirmed it was folding soon after.

“I’ve always been under the mindset of I don’t have any control over it,” Spangenberg said of how he experienced a second club of his ceasing operations. “I’m not going to be the one who decides if this league sticks around, so all the guys are just focused on what you’re doing. You’re a player, first and foremost, and if you play well enough there’s going to be an opportunity elsewhere.

“It was like the Wild West,” he added. “Teams were popping up every other year, and it just kind of came with the territory. Maybe you’d have a couple of years of security, but you weren’t really expecting to stay with the club for 10 years. You didn’t know if they were going to be around for that long.”

At 26 years old, Spangenberg found himself a free agent once more. But his two prior games in Richmond saw the Kickers offer him a contract, marking his return to the USL. He made 18 appearances in Virginia that year before hearing about a new club forming in Birmingham, Alabama. With his former coaches, Heaps and Soehn, at the helm, Spangenberg saw an opportunity to reach out.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Birmingham Legion FC

After getting in touch with Jay Heaps and Tom Soehn, Trevor Spangenberg became one of the Three Sparks’ first-ever signings ahead of the club’s inaugural 2019 season.

“I had such a great time here in Birmingham,” Spangenberg said. “Being part of a new club like that, run by guys who I respected, who do a really good job with everything like that, it was just so fun to be a part of that.”

The coaches weren’t the only familiar faces either, as Spangenberg also reunited with Eric Avila, who he had first met during his rookie season with Chivas USA. Though Avila had been an established starter at the time, meaning he and Spangenberg did not have much of a relationship, there was still some familiarity there from their shared time in Southern California.

“It kind of came full circle in how we were playing together here in Birmingham Legion,” Avila said. “I knew of him, I knew his career and where it took off, and now we’re playing on the same team. So it was really nice to see him and be linking up again.

“It’s always special trying to start a new team and having that bond with all the players there,” he added. “It’s the first year, so it means a lot. And he’s been there since day one, and he symbolises what Birmingham Legion was.”

Matt van Oekel was also a familiar face, though one he’d known as an opponent rather than a teammate. MVO wasn’t just a teammate in the Magic City, however, but also the goalkeeping coach, something Spangenberg said was another big draw in bringing him to Alabama.

“I knew his training style, and I knew I was going to click with that,” Spangenberg said. “I knew Matt’s style a little bit, and when we came into preseason that first year and I saw how he liked to train, I was like ‘man, I’m gonna love being here.’ Even if he’s number one, I really, really like his type of training, and it’s going to help me be a good player because it keeps me the sharpest that I can feel.”

And although van Oekel was signed to be the first-choice goalkeeper, it was Spangenberg between the sticks as the Three Sparks took the to field for their inaugural game.

Hosting Bethlehem Steel at PNC Field in front of more than 5,000 fans, the Legion survived the first half without conceding a goal. However, they could not find the net themselves, and two second-half strikes condemned the Black and Gold to a opening defeat.

“That first game was always a bummer that we lost it,” Spangenberg said. “I can remember those goals and I can remember the vibe of the day like it was yesterday. But it was really, really cool to be a part of that first game in Birmingham.”

Making a home

Trevor Spangenberg featured seven times in that 2019 season, conceding 11 goals and keeping one clean sheet.

After missing the inaugural game, Matt van Oekel took over as number one the following game, but Spangenberg still played in the club’s first-ever US Open Cup game on May 15, a 4-1 win over West Chester, and registered his first clean sheet for the Three Sparks in the following game, a 0-0 draw at North Carolina FC.

The NCFC game was the fourth of five consecutive starts for Spangenberg that season, with his final appearance coming on the last day of the regular season.

“We all trust Trevor; I always felt comfortable when he started,” Avila said of their time sharing the field. “He’s a player that’s always aware of his surroundings, different positions, ordering people, making sure everyone’s in the right spots, organising. He’s that type of player. Especially when you’re out of position, he’ll make sure that you will hear it from him just to help the whole back line.”

Entering his prime years as a goalkeeper, and after being the starter at his two previous clubs, Spangenberg could easily have set out for a new adventure at the conclusion of the 2019 season. But already on his fifth club in just his sixth season as a professional, he opted instead to finally lay down some roots.

He never changed clubs again, staying in the Magic City for the next seven seasons, longer than the rest of his professional career combined.

“I loved the club, that was always a big motivating factor,” Spangenberg said when asked why he stayed so long. “I loved the training aspect of it. That was really my style, the way we trained and what went down in training every day. And that’s important as a player. You’ve got to love going into training.”

Spangenberg added that he also loved the area, city, and the South in general. He enjoyed the people and the culture, and after he grew up in Northern Indiana and his wife in Chicago, the warm weather was a nice change of pace as well.

“It just checked a lot of boxes, and it was just a lot of fun,” he continued. “The grass isn’t always greener, I’ll be the first to say that. Yeah, I could have maybe gone out, I could have ventured around and been number two here or there and just packed my bags up every year, chasing it a little bit more. But at the same time, it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable. I just loved it here in Birmingham.”

That isn’t to say playing for the Three Sparks wasn’t without its challenges. As had been the case when first going to college, Spangenberg had to once again learn to be a backup.

In the shortened COVID-19 season, he made just one appearance. But still, he showed up to practice every day ready to give it is all and push van Oekel for the starting spot.

“Trevor’s been the best thing for me these past seven years,” van Oekel said. “He’s been an unbelievable competitor, unbelievable teammate.

“Trevor always pushed me, every single day, to be at my best,” he continued. “And he was always ready to play. If I got a little injury or something like that, we knew that we could rely on him for the game that I was out. He was an unbelievable competitor and a fantastic teammate all the way through.”

Van Oekel added that his relationship with Spangenberg was always a bit unique, in that he was coaching him while also competing with him. But that competition was never in the way of a collaborative relationship according to both goalkeepers, who each said they learned a lot from the other.

Because van Oekel did not have a goalkeeper coach himself, Spangenberg was in essence filling that role for Legion’s number one and sharing his thoughts with his teammate. Spangenberg was never officially a coach on the team, but that did not prevent him taking up some of those roles.

In addition to helping van Oekel out, he was also a mentor to many of the younger goalkeepers who made brief stops in the Magic City during his and MVO’s lengthy stay as GK1 and GK2.

“Coming here as a young guy, it wasn’t easy,” Fernando Delgado said. “But Trevor was always there. Whenever Matt was playing and me and him were on the bench together, [he’d be] giving me advice, motivating me.

“Trevor’s always been that guy, an amazing dude,” he continued. “Obviously a great goalkeeper, but an amazing person. I could always come talk to him, no matter the time, good day or bad day, he was always there. He was a great locker room guy, great player. I definitely miss him.”

The Birmingham years

Even though he was not the starter, Trevor Spangenberg had many memorable performances for the Three Sparks.

As the league resumed some semblance of normalcy following the pandemic, opportunities returned for Legion’s second string. Spangenberg played six and five games in 2021 and 2022, respectively, keeping one clean sheet both seasons.

His appearances were sporadic, with only one three-game stretch of consecutive games, but Spangenberg was always ready when called upon. At that point, he said his goal was simply to take them every appearance at a time. He might not be playing often, but he was going to make sure that when he did, he made his mark.

“It was just always making sure,” Spangenberg said. “I might get a game in April and not another game until September, but I better win both those games. In my brain that’s all I was focused on, so I never switched off for that reason.

“I just took every game I could play immensely with pride,” he continued. “I just wanted to make sure I did my job at the end of the day.”

Spangenberg did exactly that over those two years. In 2021, he did not lose a single game, winning four and drawing two. He then won three out of five in 2022, the only losses coming in the US Open Cup and as a substitute in the playoffs.

In his mind, when Tom Soehn and Jay Heaps sat down at the end of the year to make roster decisions, that’s what they would be looking at. No matter how many games he played, if he won a majority, he would have a place on the team.

“A goalie that you have on the bench who’s not winning you games isn’t any good,” Spangenberg said. “That’s how I took it, and that’s a pretty good and motivating factor when you spin it that way in your brain.”

That second loss of 2022 can barely be qualified as a loss either. Facing the Pittsburg Riverhounds in the first round of the postseason, Soehn famously brought Spangenberg on in the final minute of extra-time purely for the penalty shoot out.

Legion twice took the lead in that game, once in regular time and once in extra time, only to be pegged back by Pittsburgh’s Edward Kizza on both occasions. Though the second equalizer came within four minutes of full time, Spangenberg had disappeared into the locker rooms long before, just in case.

Aided by Seth Torman, at that point a practice goalkeeper who then joined full-time the following season, Spangenberg spent most of the additional 30 minutes warming up for a penalty shoutout that could have never came.

“I knew that would be the direction if we were to go to penalties, Coach Tommy had told me that,” Spangenberg said. “I’d been just doing really well with penalties in training, and we’d had the conversation.

“As soon as we were about halfway through the second half [of extra time], I was just like ‘I’m going to start preparing right now as if these are going to pens,” he continued. “I took Seth and we went into the locker room, where I spent almost the whole extra time. What happened out there didn’t matter to me. If we lose, that’s obviously a bummer, but I’m not going in. And if we win, fantastic, I’ll go out there and we’ll celebrate. But the only thing that mattered to me right then were those penalties.

“So we went into the locker room, and he warmed me up. I was just doing stuff in there, just dialled in. But to go in and be put in that situation, when I see other guys do it now, I know what they’re going through. Credit to [them], because it’s tough.”

Following Kizza’s second equalizer, Spangenberg replaced van Oekel in the final minutes of the game. It quickly looked like it wouldn’t make much of a difference though as Birmingham players missed the first two penalties of the shoutout, putting the Three Sparks in a two-goal hole.

But when Russell Cicerone stepped up to take a would-be-winning fourth penalty for the Hounds, Spangenberg made his first save of the night. William Eyang was next with another chance to win it, but Spangenberg got a strong hand down to his right to send the shootout into sudden death.

Nearly the entire team ended up taking a penalty that night, as Pittsburgh finally won it with the 20th spot kick of the series. Had Spangenberg saved that one, he would have been next in line to step up to the spot.

“You have to go from zero to a thousand in a second, and it’s not easy to do that, but of course we all love it,” Spangenberg said of the experience. “I enjoyed it, but I think I’ve never been able to tell anyone this, but it’s always rubbed me really wrong and I’ve always been really down about the fact that we lost that game. It was such a great environment, experience. Saving [penalties] four and five was a blast.

“I was feeling it, and then to lose that, it was such a bummer,” he continued. “I was always really disappointed to not be bringing that home for that home playoff game and all the fans there. But it just showed the testament to the fans there in Birmingham […] and it showed what the culture can be here when the team is winning games and in the playoffs. It’s exciting to think that it’ll get back to that.”

That game, the first and so far only playoff game at Protective Stadium, set an at-the-time Legion record attendance of 10,227 fans.

When the Three Sparks next broke that record, Spangenberg was in goal once again.

On May 24, 2023, Birmingham Legion welcomed Charlotte FC to Protective in the US Open Cup. In front of 12,722 fans, Spangenberg kept a clean sheet as the Three Sparks upset their MLS opposition.

“That game was a blast,” Spangenberg said. “I’ll always remember that [cup] run. A lot of fun memories from that run and it was a fun group of guys to be doing that with. Sometimes the cards just got to fall your way in the Open Cup.”

Spangenberg could only watch from the bench as his side lost in the ensuing round to another MLS team, breaking their attendance record yet again, but 2023 was still a memorable year for him. With 17 appearances and seven clean sheets, it ended up being his best season in the Magic City.

Spangenberg played seven of the first nine league games that season, winning four, drawing one and losing just two. Van Oekel reclaimed his place between the sticks for the middle of the season, but Spangenberg returned to see it out, playing four of the last five regular season matches with a 2-1-1 record and then subbing in at half-time of Legion’s playoff win over Tampa Bay Rowdies after an injury to MVO.

Adding in the cup run, which saw Spangenberg in goal for four wins to take Legion to the quarterfinal with Inter Miami, the backup goalkeeper won 11 and lost just four of his 17 appearances that season, a 65% win rate.

“You’ve seen it throughout some of the years, when he had to come in and step in and he made some big saves in big games for us, so that’s the trust that we have in him,” Eric Avila, who at this point had returned as an assistant coach, said. “It’s very difficult [to stay ready], and then the motivation is tough. But for him to show up knowing that he might get one or two games or three games, he’s always said ‘I just gotta be ready, any moment that Matt goes down, I have to step in and do my job.’ And every time he has stepped in, he’s done amazing.”

He followed 2023 up with another six appearances in 2024, including the season finale thrashing of Oakland Roots. That 5-0 win, his only clean sheet that year, would prove to be his final appearance in a Birmingham shirt.

The end of the road

All good things come to an end, and for Trevor Spangenberg, that came true in 2025.

Despite extending his stay in Birmingham for another year, the veteran goalkeeper did not see the field in the team’s latest season. Fernando Delgado, signed permanently after his loan the previous year, took over the backup spot, and Spangenberg took on a practice player role.

The goalkeeper wasn’t in the public’s eye, but when Eric Avila took interim charge following Tom Soehn’s dismissal, he credited Spangenberg as one of the leaders who kept the ship afloat behind the scenes.

“Sometimes you’re kind of blind because you’re a player as well, and when I take a step back and then come in as a coach and have a different perspective of things, you can see just the leadership of how he carries himself and how people respect him,” Avila said. “Even though he may not have been captain, he was definitely one of the leadership groups on that team and every team, every year that he was here.

“So for me it was comfortable,” he continued. “It was good to see him and it was also another set of eyes as a staff because he’s a guy that will always protect the team and his locker room, but will always shoot you straight.”

But the goalkeeper’s time in the spotlight was quickly coming to an end.

After five bench appearances early in the season, Spangenberg’s name disappeared from the matchday squads entirely. Soon he was also missing from training photos and footage, and it was later revealed he was struggling with an injury.

Facing a decision no professional athlete ever wants to be forced into, Spangenberg opted to hang up the gloves midway through the season. No official announcement was made, and only the team and those in the know were even aware of what had transpired.

Spangenberg attended two final games at Protective in June before disappearing from the Birmingham Legion scene.

“We’ve been together for seven years, and I wish him all the best in the next journey,” Matt van Oekel said. “I miss him every day. It’s always though to lose somebody like that, but I completely understand where he’s at and I wish him the best.”

“Trevor and I have known each other for a long time now,” Avila added. “We’ve become really good friends. We’ve golfed with each other a bunch of times, we’ve gone on some golf trips. But he’s also a guy that I respect a lot, because for me, for him to show up every day and do what he does and also stay true to himself, I think it speaks a lot about him.

“I think he really had a great career,” the coach continued. “It’s just sad to see. Of course, you always want to look out for yourself, but this team still needs a Trevor. And so do most teams.”

Coming into 2025, Spangenberg and van Oekel were the last two players standing from Birmingham Legion’s inaugural class of 2019. Spangenberg’s retirement put an end to a lengthy partnership between the two, and also marks a turning point for the club.

With his departure, there are no more players on the team who took part in Birmingham Legion’s first-ever competitive game.

While many former players, like Avila, return to the sport in some capacity, there is currently no such plan for Spangenberg. The goalkeeper said he has done a lot of coaching and really enjoys it, but after dedicating the first 34 years of his life to soccer, it’s time for him to take a step back for a while.

“Needing to hang up the boots on the playing career a bit earlier than I would have liked because of the recurring back injury has been difficult to come to terms with, and I need to step away completely from the sport for now,” Spangenberg said. “I loved being a player and definitely miss it every day and will do so for a long time. Jumping straight in as a coach would be really hard in my mind.

“I said this to the guys when I spoke to the team and told them I was retiring,” he added. “I’d be out at the next two home games, but after that they wouldn’t see me around. I needed a clean break from everything, and that still holds true. So for now, the boots and goalkeeper gloves are packed away and you can find me on the golf course instead.”

Whether he ever returns to the game he loves in a professional capacity remains to be seen. What is certain is that Trevor Spangenberg’s name will forever have a place in the Birmingham Legion history books.

Enjoyed this article? Check out Birmingham Sports Media’s profile of Birmingham Legion head coach Mark Briggs right here.

Mark Briggs: connected to success

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