VALPARAISO | Chances are that at some point during the upcoming Valparaiso outdoor track and field season, coach Ryan Moore's team is going to suffer an injury or be in a situation where it needs to score points in an event to place higher.

When that time comes, Moore will not hesitate when he calls on Tom Heun.

Heun, a junior history major from Cleveland, is a jack-of-all-trades type for the Crusaders and he relishes his role as Mr. Versatility.

"I'm decent in a lot of things, but not great at just one thing," Heun said. "I think that works to my advantage."

Whether Moore needs Heun to score points in hurdles or take the lead in the 1,600-meter relay, he calls Heun the one athlete that holds the team together.

"He is a total team player, one that will do anything that I ask him to do," Moore said. "This year has been a bit of a break because we've filled up around him, but we still look for where we think he will perform the best."

Even away from the track, Heun has always strived to be a mixture of a little bit of everything. In high school, he performed in a band called Soccer Moms and released a CD. Now in his third year of college, he plays guitar, piano, trumpet and is picking up on the bass guitar.

On the track, Heun is eager to conquer the hurdles, an event he learned from his father, who ran collegiately at Baldwin-Wallace.

Last season he posted 12 season-best marks for the Crusaders (five indoor, seven outdoor) and had four top-10 finishes at the Butler Twilights.

"He's been training me since I was little and now my speed is starting to catch up to my form," Heun said. "Hurdles gives me something to focus on and if I can run a 60 in seven seconds without hurdles, then in my mind, I want to run a 60 in seven seconds with hurdles. I don't even want to think about them."

The Crusaders will face plenty of hurdles in their first year in the Horizon League. Without the depth of many of the other conference schools, points will be hard to achieve. But don't say that to Heun.