AP FILE PHOTO - South Dakota State forward Luke Appel (13) drives past Arkansas forward Jalen Graham (11) during the first half of a college basketball game Nov. 16, 2022, in Fayetteville, Ark. Appel finished with nine points in the game.

Luke Appel spent six years in college, earning his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in economics while devoting his life to basketball.

Through all of his time spent in the classroom and on the court, Appel learned that his own successes are a byproduct of the people he’s surrounded himself with all his life.

Appel, a 2018 Marshalltown High School graduate, recently signed to play basketball with Okapi Aalst, a professional club from Aalst, Belgium. The 6-foot-7 left-hander leaves for Belgium on July 28 to begin a journey that Appel had long been hoping he would make.

“It was always a dream of mine to play overseas,” said Appel, the fourth leading scorer all-time at Marshalltown High School. “Watching my brother Michael play when I was growing up and then him coming back to coach me my senior year as a volunteer assistant, that year was when basketball got really serious. He opened my eyes to what it actually takes.”

Appel said it started by playing multiple sports in high school. He was a member of Marshalltown’s fall golf state championship team in 2017, and he was a starting right fielder for the state-qualifying baseball team the summer of 2018. In between, he was an all-CIML basketball standout and second-team all-stater, as well as a junior varsity sprinter in the spring.

“I’m not the fastest or quickest guy ever,” Appel joked. “But I had a great group of friends that made things happen. We all believed. We all believed in each other.”

Appel accumulated 1,038 points in his Bobcat career before committing to play basketball at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. The Eagles won a National Junior College Athletic Association championship in Appel’s first season, further fostering his love for the game and his competitive drive.

“Getting into a super winning culture with (coach) Bryan Petersen, that helped a lot,” said Appel, “and then going to South Dakota State with Douglas Wilson and Bryan Petersen, that winning culture stayed through and through the whole time.”

Petersen left Kirkwood to join new head coach Eric Henderson’s staff at SDSU after Appel’s freshman campaign, but the Marshalltown native stuck it out with the Eagles for his final season. Appel earned second-team NJCAA Division II All-American honors and was named the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference’s Co-Player of the Year after averaging 15.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

Wilson, a Des Moines Hoover graduate, went with Petersen to South Dakota State following that national championship campaign. Much like what was a collective decision to sign with Kirkwood, Appel joined his former teammate and coach in Brookings, S.D.

“I played AAU basketball my whole life and some of my teammates and I decided we were going to play at Kirkwood together so we all signed like a day apart,” Appel said. “We didn’t lose very often. That was the best part about just developing the winning culture at Kirkwood. Those dudes knew how to get buckets so you have to learn quick or you’re going to get left behind.”

Upon graduating from Kirkwood in 2000, Appel had to find his next basketball destination without getting much of an opportunity to look for one. The coronavirus pandemic limited or prohibited college visits, leaving Appel to rely on relationships he had built throughout the years.

“COVID happened so I couldn’t take visits anywhere,” he said. “I just had to trust coach Petersen, and coach Henderson’s like the most personable guy you’re ever going to meet in your life. He’s the best.”

Call it a leap of faith, Appel followed his former teammate and his former coach to South Dakota State, and it worked out great. The Jackrabbits made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and 2024, highlighted by a 31-5 season in 2021-22 that included a perfect 18-0 record in the Summit League. Appel was named the Summit League’s Sixth Man of the Year after appearing in all 35 games while making just one start, averaging 9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest.

Appel’s season peaked with a 41-point, 10-rebound performance against Oral Roberts, marking the first 40-point double-double by a reserve in all of NCAA Division I men’s basketball in 25 years.

Injury sidelined Appel for most of the 2022-23 season, as he suffered a broken humeral head in his left shoulder, but he took advantage of the extra COVID year allotted to all collegiate athletes. He averaged 11.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists while playing 26.2 minutes per game in his final year, helping SDSU win the Summit League Tournament to earn another berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Midway through the season, Appel signed with Wilson’s agent in anticipation of an opportunity to continue playing after college. Wilson, a 6-7 Hoover grad, played with UMF Alftanes in Iceland, where he earned honorable mention All-Icelandic League after putting up 18.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in his first professional season.

About two weeks ago, at his parents’ house in Marshalltown, Appel signed his first professional contract.

“My mom and dad have been at every single college game except for one I think,” Luke said of his parents, Jerry and Donna. “I waited ’til I got home with my parents. They really wanted me to do it just to experience the world, but then once I signed it my mom told me the next morning she was crying because she was so terrified I was going to be 16 hours away.”

Appel says he will have at least one other American around him, as Appalachian State graduate Donovan Gregory is signed with Okapi Aalst and will be his roommate in Belgium.

“I’ve talked to him a few times, but everything’s going to be new,” Appel said. “The fear of the unknown is kinda what I’m scared of, but I also kinda love that. I’m a very outgoing person so I think it’s going to go really well for me because I’m going to meet a lot of new people and talk to new people, as long as they speak English.”

Appel is monolingual, but has a good friend who he met at South Dakota State who is from the Netherlands, Belgium’s neighbor to the north. Hester Sicking played for the SDSU women’s golf team before transferring to Kent State two years ago, but Appel said she has provided him with peace of mind for his first experience in Europe.

“She says ‘don’t worry, all the kids will speak English,'” Appel said. “‘Everyone my age will speak English.’ They speak Dutch, French and German over there as well. But they all know how to speak multiple languages. They’re going to think I’m crazy for only speaking English.”

With the Okapi Aalst Basketball Club, Appel will be playing games in Belgium and the Netherlands in the top-tier BNXT League. The club has struggled to perform recently, finishing 13th and 12th in the league the last two seasons, but Appel said he feels great about the situation.

“First year, rookie contract, top league in Belgium from a mid-major school doesn’t happen all the time, so that’s why I think (my agent) is taking care of me and it’s a great opportunity,” Appel said. “Each year you try to move up and up and up, obviously, and he’s got the same mindset as me. Everyone thinks it’s a great opportunity for me.

“They struggled last year but they’ve got a new coach so it’s a great opportunity in a new league, we’ve just gotta go and give it our all. It’s just about finding a spot where I’m happy living and enjoying my life, that’s a huge thing for me. If I’m not enjoying it I’ll come back (to the United States) and I have my Master’s so I can get a sales job somewhere.

“This is just like a paid vacation, but I get to play basketball.”