Stars and Stripes has selected an Athlete of the Year for each of the respective fall sports played across each of DODEA’s Europe and Pacific theaters. Check out our site this week to read profiles for golf (Tuesday), tennis (Wednesday), cross country (Thursday), volleyball (Friday) and football (Saturday).

Asia Andrews will be the first to admit she’s changed a lot since entering Kaiserslautern High School in fall 2021.

She joined the golf team, believing her natural ability could carry her past her opponents. While it did end in a second-place finish at the DODEA European golf championships that fall, she concluded that wasn’t going to be enough.

“My freshman year, I was just banking on raw talent,” Andrews said. “Now … I’m playing strategically. I’m looking at a shot, I’m analyzing the green, I’m making sure that I’m putting forth my best foot rather than just swinging and hoping.”

Andrews, now a junior, has been putting her best foot forward the past two campaigns, winning the past two individual European girls titles by double-digit points on the Modified Stableford scoring system.

And her performance on the links this season led her to be named Stars and Stripes’ European girls golf Athlete of the Year.

The Kaiserslautern ace averaged 28.3 points per round during the regular season, eight points better than Naples’ Morgan Johnson in second place. Then, Andrews posted rounds of 30 and 29 points during the two-day European tournament last month at Woodlawn Golf Course on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to win by 14 points over teammate Reigen Pezel, the 2021 girls champion.

Her performances also helped the Raiders to team titles the past three seasons.

“I’ve always tried to see myself in a No. 1 spot,” Andrews said. “I’ve always envisaged it, so I’ve always had that ambition to work toward it. So, I think I did expect this for myself.”

After nearly doubling her point total at the European championships between her freshman (19) and sophomore (34) seasons and tripling that total between her freshman and junior (59) years, Andrews easily could point out her improvement on the physical side of the game.

Instead, though, the daughter of Valerie and Tye Davis mentioned her mental advancement as a key reason for the drastic increase in scores. She said she used to fear bad shots because of embarrassment. She was worried her coaches would think less of her whenever she hit one.

After much encouragement and self-growth, she realized such things happen, even to the best professionals in the sport. That epiphany allowed Andrews to play more loosely.

“Of course, I was tweaking my swing, I was trying to help with fatigue, I was strengthening my core, but more than anything, I was trying to gain confidence because I needed to learn that I do have a lot of skill and I do have a lot of natural ability,” she said. “I don’t have to be so nervous when I’m out there because I know how to play.”

Andrews isn’t the only one who has noticed how well she plays.

She said universities such as Howard and South Carolina State have expressed interest in having her join their golf programs. Both schools have invited her to come to camps and tour the facilities and academic programs to see if playing golf there would be a good fit.

Before moving onto college, Andrews still has another year of DODEA competition. She faces the prospect of winning a third individual title and finishing her high school career with a quartet of team crowns.

To do so, she will focus on becoming more consistent on the links.

“I’m at a point where I don’t need to change anything drastic with my swing,” Andrews said. “I think I just need to be out there, play more courses and just work on consistency because that’s going to be key at this point in my game.”

The one thing that will be drastically different for Andrews next fall will be the team around her.

Although the Kaiserslautern girls team has been one of the largest in Europe, she will be without her best friends on the team in seniors Pezel and Shaelee Moneymaker-Donachie.

“It’s going to be bittersweet next year because Reigen and Shaelee are my best friends on the team and they’re going to be gone and winning was something that I loved to share with them,” Andrews said. “So, of course it will be nice, but I’ll miss getting to share the glory and everything with those two.”