Make time to see high school athletes in action
Published: November 1, 2011
European championships in football and girls' volleyball are on the line Saturday in Germany, and a third tournament, the boys' Mediterranean Regional volleyball championship, will decide that title the same day in Aviano.
There actually are three girls' volleyball tournaments going on Thursday-Saturday in Ramstein and Kaiserslautern. All of them, the round-robin Division I event and the pool-play with crossover semifinals in Divisions II and III, begin concurrently at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and run all day at Ramstein Southside gym, and the Vogelweh and Kaiserslautern High School gyms in K-town. The action continues at all three venues on Friday and concludes with the thrid-place and title games Saturday at Ramstein Southside.
To me, the girls' volleyball events are among the premier spectator opportunites available to the European military community. In addition to diplaying their considerable skills, the volleyball teams play with evident joy and a sense of sportsmanship that's marvelously refreshing. Admission's free; why not take time to take in a game or two and let us know what you think? Whatever you decide, we'll try to keep you posted each day with continual updates at our website, stripes.com
I've never seen a DODDS-Europe boys' volleyball game, but I'd be surprised if they don't offer specators the same sort of pleasure the girls do. If I were in Aviano this week, I wouldn't miss the Med Regional. Those results, too, can be viewed at stripes.com.
Instead, however, I'm going to be in Baumholder, where DODDS-Europe football 2011 is scheduled to wind up in a blaze of glory beginning at noon Saturday with the annual Super Six championship tripleheader. Rota and Bamberg will start things off in a showdown for the Division III title; At 2:30 p.m., Bitburg and Ansbach, who between them have won the last five D-II titles, will square off for that crown, then at 5 p.m. Ramstein and Wiesbaden will vy for the D-I championship. We'll post pictures and game scores and stories as we get them on stripes.com.
A single ticket, $5 for adults, $3 for students, will cover all three games, to be played on Minick Field at Baumholder's Smith Barracks. If you're tapped out, you can watch the games live on AFN's Pentagon Channel or through streaming video at afneurope.net.
