Hohenfels' David Vidovic stiff arms an Ansbach defender in the 2014 DODDS-Europe D-II football championship in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Nov. 1, 2014. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)
Hohenfels' David Vidovic stiff arms an Ansbach defender in the 2014 DODDS-Europe D-II football championship in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Nov. 1, 2014. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)
Hohenfels' David Vidovic throws a half back pass for a two-point conversion in the 2014 DODDS-Europe D-II football championship in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Nov. 1, 2014. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes)
David Vidovic is extremely difficult to tackle.
This simple but irrefutable fact has had profound implications for DODDS-Europe Division II football over the last four years. It launched an entire program from relative obscurity into the division’s elite.
It triggered upsets and felled a dynasty.
It prompted opposing coaches to spend full weeks drawing up ultimately futile defensive schemes.
It produced some of the most memorable moments in recent DODDS-Europe history.
And it is why, for the second consecutive season, Hohenfels Tigers running back Vidovic is the Stars and Stripes football Athlete of the Year.
Vidovic’s ascent into stardom began with his transfer to Hohenfels after a freshman season spent on the Vilseck junior varsity. That fall, the sophomore Vidovic helped the Tigers clinch a playoff berth on the last day of the regular season with 403 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-20 win over Aviano.
A year later, Vidovic’s prodigious runs led Hohenfels back to the postseason, but he didn’t stop there. He scored the go-ahead rushing touchdown and game-clinching interception return in the Tigers’ historic semifinal defeat of four-time champion Bitburg. The following week, he scored twice in a one-minute span to lift Hohenfels to a stunning comeback win over SHAPE for the 2013 Division II European championship.
Vidovic, now the accomplished and award-winning centerpiece of a championship team, entered his senior season under the heavy burden of expectation. He responded as he always had, with discarded tackles, iron-man excellence, astronomical stat lines and touchdown after dramatic touchdown. The only thing lacking from Vidovic’s fairy-tale career was a happy ending: his Tigers were denied a second straight title Nov. 1 in a 30-20 loss to Ansbach.
A crestfallen Vidovic wandered the Kaiserslautern High School field in tears that evening, seemingly incredulous that he could want something so bad and not achieve it. The truth that he was just one young man, on a sprawling 100-yard field of 22 young men who all care, all try and all want to win, with a championship-tested coach on either sideline, couldn’t console him.
Meanwhile, the Cougars jubilantly explained how they’d contained Vidovic to a mere 377 combined rushing and receiving yards. They talked with pride about how Ansbach coach Marcus George had warned them on the bus ride from Bavaria that Vidovic might outright dominate them for a good portion of the game. It was up to them to fight back, the Cougar players said, and to their credit, they did.
But that, more than anything, is the impact Vidovic has had on DODDS-Europe football.
Not every run ended in a touchdown. Not every game ended in a win. And not every season ended in a championship.
But between the first and last time Vidovic pulled on a Hohenfels Tiger helmet, things changed. Championships switched hands. Dynasties fell. Potential was realized.
And the exploits of David Vidovic were carved into the annals of DODDS-Europe football.
Twitter: @broomestripes
