Bitburg's Leigha Daryanani is among those trying to take advantage of the graduation of four-time champion Jenna Eidem. Jennifer Svan/Stars and Stripes (Jennifer Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The first action of the 2015 DODDS-Europe fall sports season will take place Thursday on a pair of golf courses in Germany.
A combined seven teams will take to the links at Stuttgart and Baumholder, teeing off a rapid three-week regular season leading to the 2015-16 school year’s first championship tournament – the two-day European title meet Oct. 7-8 at Wiesbaden, halfway between the two sites that host Thursday’s season-opening rounds.
Boys An established champion reigns in Stuttgart junior Jordan Holifield, who is halfway through a potential four-year run atop the DODEA Europe boys ranks.
Holifield arrived on the European scene as a stateside transfer in his freshman year, just in time to catch up and pass the existing field and post a narrow victory in the 2013 European tournament. He followed that in 2014 with a dominant regular season and a more comfortable 10-point win for the repeat title.
With that in mind, Holifield enters his junior season as a runaway favorite to prolong his streak. But there’s a worthy set of contenders in place to keep him honest.
Senior Noah Shin, the 2014 runner-up to Holifield, has transferred from Wiesbaden to Ramstein, where he’ll headline a deep Royals program that includes his brother Daniel Shin.
The Warriors, meanwhile, are in good shape despite the Shins’ departure. Sophomore Jarred Edwards, last year’s seventh-place finisher, and incoming freshman Finn Swafford top the Wiesbaden roster.
The talent base extends well beyond Germany, however.
In the United Kingdom, senior Cody Maglio is the ace of a quality Lakenheath program. AFNORTH’s Michael Yasenchak is out for another tournament nod from the Benelux. Rota senior Taylor House is in the mix for a tournament run. And in the Middle East, senior Imran Mohd Raji is an emerging contender, as evidenced by his hole-in-one in the team’s Sept. 12 qualifying meet.
Girls The DODDS Europe girls golf championship hasn’t been truly in question for years. That’s finally changed this fall.
Jenna Eidem, the Wiesbaden phenom who claimed European championships in all four of her high school seasons, has moved on to Southwest Oklahoma State University. After nearly a half decade of playing for second place, the continent’s frustrated contenders are now vying for an unoccupied throne.
That list starts, appropriately enough, with last year’s runner-up, Leigha Daryanani of Bitburg, and 2014 third-place finisher Jasmin Acker of Kaiserslautern. While Eidem cruised to her fourth and final victory, the freshmen Daryanani and Acker waged a compelling battle for second place. That evenly-matched competition, ultimately claimed by Daryanani by one point in the tournament’s modified Stableford scoring system, suggests good things for the post-Eidem era as the two sophomores take the main stage.
Twitter: @broomestripes
