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Wiesbaden players celebrate after defeating Ramstein in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. The Warriors could well be the ones celebrating again this year, returning 14 players from last year's squad.

Wiesbaden players celebrate after defeating Ramstein in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. The Warriors could well be the ones celebrating again this year, returning 14 players from last year's squad. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)

Wiesbaden players celebrate after defeating Ramstein in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. The Warriors could well be the ones celebrating again this year, returning 14 players from last year's squad.

Wiesbaden players celebrate after defeating Ramstein in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. The Warriors could well be the ones celebrating again this year, returning 14 players from last year's squad. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)

Wiesbaden's CJ Pridgen snatches a long touchdown scoring pass in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. Pridgen is one of 14 players returning for the Warriors this season.

Wiesbaden's CJ Pridgen snatches a long touchdown scoring pass in the DODDS-Europe Division I football championships at Kaiserslautern High School Stadium, Germany, Nov. 2, 2013. Pridgen is one of 14 players returning for the Warriors this season. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)

Kaiserslautern's Antwan Haynes pulls in a pass on his way to scoring a touchdown in a game against Wiesbaden, Oct. 4, 2013. Haynes will be returning for the Raiders this season.

Kaiserslautern's Antwan Haynes pulls in a pass on his way to scoring a touchdown in a game against Wiesbaden, Oct. 4, 2013. Haynes will be returning for the Raiders this season. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Ramstein's Gabe Moreno looks for an opening on a 17-yard rush during a Royals win Oct. 26, 2013, over visiting Patch. The All-Europe wideout is one of few players returning for Ramstein this season.

Ramstein's Gabe Moreno looks for an opening on a 17-yard rush during a Royals win Oct. 26, 2013, over visiting Patch. The All-Europe wideout is one of few players returning for Ramstein this season. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

When a team wins a championship, its players often declare a wish for the same group to return and do it all over again the next season. But in football, and particularly in DODDS-Europe, that’s usually impossible.

The Wiesbaden Warriors, however, are not your usual team.

The group of Warriors that will take the gridiron in defense of its European Division I championship this weekend will look an awful lot like the one that ran off it in triumph last November. This isn’t just a case of an established coach, a well-known set of principles and a historically successful program reconfiguring for another title shot. This is, by and large, the same core of standout players back for another taste of high-school glory.

Check out the numbers. Wiesbaden head coach Steve Jewell reports 14 returnees from last year’s varsity squad. That’s two more than any other Division I team. Further, 11 of the 14 were regular starters a year ago, another DODDS-Europe high.

Some of the names among that group should jog, or rather sprint, the memories of DODDS-Europe football fans.

Speedster Anthony Little, the breakout (and breakaway) star of last year’s title-game conquest of Ramstein, returns to the backfield while also bringing his speed and rapidly-growing skill set as a linebacker.

Sturdy Tim Cuthbert will slide in at quarterback while maintaining his spot as an All-Europe defensive end.

Game-changing athlete CJ Pridgen is back to wreak havoc on both sides of the ball; he’s a receiver his quarterback can’t miss and a safety the opposing quarterback would be wise to avoid.

Offensive linemen Hunter Lunasin and Jack Tone, meanwhile, are back to anchor the unit that made all of Wiesbaden’s offensive fireworks go off last fall.

But just as the Warriors’ reign atop DODDS-Europe started a year sooner than many observers might have thought, a tough field of contenders exists to end it prematurely.

Ramstein was coming off a 2012 European title and on the verge of capping off a dominant undefeated season when the Warriors brought its momentum to an abrupt stop. Now the Royals, already demoted from champion to challenger, might enter the season as full-fledged underdogs.

Head coach Carlos Amponin welcomes back just eight players from last year’s runner-up squad, including just one offensive playmaker in All-Europe wideout Gabe Moreno. While the Warriors tap into proven championship pedigree, the Royals will lean largely on the promise of fresh talent.

But don’t shed too many tears on Ramstein’s behalf. The offense will get a boost from incoming transfer Ben Ciero, who will conclude his highly-productive DODDS-Europe rushing career in Royal blue after starring at Lakenheath. And junior varsity call-up Tyler Dotson has a shot to make an immediate impact as the team’s new starting quarterback. Returning starter Clesson Allman and Tyler Peoples, back in the lineup after missing the entire 2013 season to injury, give the Royals a head start on fielding a strong core of two-way linemen. The uncertainty in Ramstein can only read as an opportunity for neighbor and archrival Kaiserslautern.

The Raiders managed to fully extricate themselves from a seemingly endless mire of winless seasons with a winning campaign and a playoff berth last year. Another season of similar success would finally and fully distance the program from its former iteration as a DODDS-Europe laughingstock.

But Kaiserslautern has a loftier goal, and might have the roster to reach it.

The Raiders return 10 starters from last year’s group, a haul second only to Wiesbaden. Foremost among the 10 is gifted wide receiver Antwan Haynes, who emerged as one of DODDS-Europe most explosive offensive weapons in a breakout junior season.

Haynes will be paired this year with new quarterback Bridger Hawkins, a strong-armed 6-foot-3 senior. That duo, along with senior wideout Kilian Knight and junior running back David Zaryczny, has the potential to develop into an offense that could outduel Wiesbaden in a shootout similar to the one the two teams engaged in last October, which Wiesbaden eked out by a 42-34 score.

While Wiesbaden, Ramstein and Kaiserslautern likely represent the top tier of Division I football in 2014, they’d be wise to acknowledge the danger posed by the rest of the six-team field.

Patch coach Bill Ratcliff is new to the Panthers’ head job but a longtime veteran of DODDS-Europe coaching, and is bringing back a solid 12-player contingent from last year’s semifinalist team. A set of seniors led by linemen Brian Mogavero and Josh Puentes represent Patch’s best chance to get back to the level of their championship-game appearance in 2012.

Lakenheath, too, is under new leadership after former coach and athletic director Matt Martinez made the move to Baumholder. The Lancers are coming off a winless season but are far from a lost cause; last year’s Lakenheath squad took two of its three October losses by a combined four points. New coach Josh Kueter has five returning varsity starters to work with, including wideout Elmer Ramos and quarterback Bailey Babineaux, and a promising set of newcomers including seniors Casey Fairchild and Hunter Novotny.

Vilseck, meanwhile, maintains a well-earned reputation as a team nobody enjoys playing against. The Falcons proved it last year in allowing just 77 points over the course of their 2-3 season, a total second only to Ramstein. They even recorded a 14-13 regular-season win over eventual champ Wiesbaden. If head coach Jim Hall can maintain that level of hard-nosed defense, oversee a slight uptick in offense and watch a few balls bounce in his team’s favor, Vilseck might morph into an even less desirable opponent in 2014. Two-way standouts such as junior Andrew Pinckney and sophomore Austin Archangel are among the program’s primary sources of optimism.

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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