Troy Thayer had to find ways to keep himself busy on May 8.
The Ames boys soccer team was hosting Waterloo East, and the Little Cyclones overwhelmed the Trojans from the start. They rolled to a 14-0 victory in just one half of play due to the 10-goal mercy rule.
Thayer is the starting keeper for Ames, so it was not an ideal game to show off his skills. Instead of being back by the Ames goal, Thayer spent his time up between the 20 and 25-yard line trying anything he could to keep busy.
He made sure to keep his head in the game and bark out orders to the Little Cyclone defensive back four on occasion.
When a ball occasionally did find its way to him, Thayer took advantage of the situation to work on playing the ball to his feet and communicate with the Ames defenders and midfielders to quickly get the ball back out to them to start another Little Cyclone offensive attack.
“We treated it kind of more like a scrimmage,” said Thayer. “I would say distribution was my main thing today. I tried talking to my back line — it was probably the only thing I could do. I tried to hype my teammates up, especially my boy Tristen (Runge), who got to go in at strike at the end of the night.”
Thayer is in his first season as the starting keeper for Ames.
He did get some starting time late in 2025 when starter Finley DeLisi suffered a concussion. But he was thrown into the fire against Ankeny Centennial, a game Ames ended up losing by a 4-0 score.
He also started against Des Moines East last year. Thayer gave up two goals and made three saves in a 4-3 Ames victory.
Those two games gave Thayer a taste of varsity ball. He admits to being nervous on those two nights, but the experience gave him something to build on heading into the offseason.
During the summer, fall and winter, Thayer was able to get more comfortable defending the net and taking charge of the defense. He was going to take on a big leadership role as a sophomore this season because Ames had lost the bulk of its starting roster off last year’s state tournament team.
“He has just continued to get better,” said Ames coach Ryan McGowan. “He’s athletic and he has the pieces to be a really good keeper.”
DeLisi has been a tremendous help for Thayer.
DeLisi was there for Thayer last year when he had to go in against Centennial and East. This season DeLisi has continued showing up to Ames games and offering Thayer pointers.
“He’s my mentor this season,” Thayer said. “He’ll watch my games and he’ll tell me what he sees. He’ll just kind of tell me what I need to work on in practice, what I did good and how I can help other pieces of our team, not just me.”
The Ames defensive back line consists of center backs Corwyn Evans and Cameron Donavon, right back Dylan Vargas and left back Christoph Kuhlman-Schneider. Evans is a sophomore, the other three are juniors, and like Thayer they had little varsity experience coming into the season.
The 2026 season has had its ups and downs for the Ames defense. The Little Cyclones just posted their second shutout of the season versus Waterloo East, but they have held their opposition to one goal on six separate occasions.
Ames has given up one goal or less in three of its last four games. The defense is starting to jell, and Thayer is a big reason for that.
“He helps organize us,” said Evans. “He’s someone we can trust. Even when one of us makes a mistake we know he’s got our back.”
For the season, Thayer went into the Waterloo East game with 60 saves and 23 goals allowed. He had a 72% save rate, which is well up from his 50% rate in 2025, and much closer in line with DeLisi’s 79% rate from a year ago.
A big reason he has made gains is due to his height and reach.
Thayer stands 6-foot-4. On May 1 he made a huge save during Ames’ 2-1 upset win over Class 3A No. 3 Des Moines Hoover by going up on a high shoot off a corner and deflecting the ball by getting his long arm up near the upper cross bar to knock the ball away.
“It’s pretty nice, I can’t lie,” Thayer said. “Especially when the ball is in the air during corners. It’s definitely an advantage compared to someone who might be shorter. I try to use it every way I can.”
As he continues to learn more and work on his footwork, Thayer’s reaction time will improve. He will also have better knowledge of where to play the ball against certain offensive sets and get a better grasp of where the opposing team’s top threats are most effective.
Thayer wants to keep making big strides this season and help a 6-5-3 Ames team make a surprise run in the postseason. Then he will have two more years to grow as a player and a leader, and during that time he could develop into one of the top keepers in the state.
“Continue to help organize our back row, take on a leadership role and just have confidence in his feet that we can play through him and he can help us if we’re under duress,” McGowan said. “Obviously he can make the saves with his hands, but we’re trying to take that next step with the other skills he has.”
Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: How Ames boys soccer player Troy Thayer is becoming a quality keeper
Reporting by Joe Randleman, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
