Mia Snyder immediately became anxious when she looked at her email after basketball practice in early December.

The Stuttgart senior and her teammates were about to head out for some team bonding. But she knew an email from the Coker University women’s volleyball coach was about whether she was going to fulfill the dream of playing at the next level.

With all her teammates around her, Stars and Stripes’ 2024 European girls volleyball Athlete of the Year clicked on the life-changing email.

“As soon as we opened the email, everybody was excited,” said Snyder, who accepted the offer and will be playing for the Cobras this fall. “It was almost the perfect way to open up this email.

“I was super excited. I was in shock, actually. I was like, ‘Did this really happen?’ But it was amazing.”

Snyder is one of at least 20 DODEA-Europe senior athletes who will be competing in college. She is also one of four — Ramstein’s Tristan Chandler with Southern New Hampshire University for tennis, Wiesbaden’s Munro Davis with East Stroudsburg University for tennis and Sigonella’s Rickalia Goss with Marysville University for track and field — to go to a Division II school.

Kaiserslautern’s Stella Schmitz became at least the eighth DODEA-Europe athlete since 2022 to join a Division I program after signing her National Letter of Intent with Big Ten school Rutgers in November.

For Davis, it was a no-brainer when he received East Stroudsburg’s offer. Davis visited the campus over the winter and was offered right after the wrestling season when he clinched his third European title.

“I accepted it pretty much instantly because it was one of the only colleges that reached out to me,” said Davis, Stars and Stripes’ 2023-24 European wrestling Athlete of the Year. “I’m really excited because not a lot of people in DODEA get a chance like this.”

Davis and Snyder sent film to numerous coaches in hopes of gaining their attention. Ramstein’s Chandler went a different route.

The four-time European singles champion participated in the Keystone Sports College Tennis Showcase in Cologne, Germany, the past two summers. U.S. college coaches scout athletes at the event, which is held annually in various European cities.

In 2023, the Southern New Hampshire tennis coach was a hot commodity, as Chandler saw him always speaking with athletes. The Ramstein ace made it a mission to speak with him in 2024, telling him to watch his last singles match.

With two Division I coaches also in attendance, Chandler defeated his opponent 7-5, 2-6, 10-4. After the match, the Penmen coach gave Chandler his number, which started the process that ended with the Royal signing in November.

“I just liked Southern New Hampshire the best out of those three because even though Southern New Hampshire is a D-II and not a D-I, it’s such a highly competitive D-II that we’re hoping to actually win the D-II national championship in the next four years or so,” said Chandler, Stars and Stripes’ boys tennis Athlete of the Year for 2023 and 2024. “It’s a better option for me than the other D-Is.”

While geographical location wasn’t Chandler’s top priority, Snyder wanted to end up in one area: the Carolinas.

Born in Maryland, the Stuttgart defensive specialist/setter moved around the world because of her father, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Scott Snyder.

Before her father’s assignment in Stuttgart, the Snyders were stationed in North Carolina, and she has family in South Carolina. Coker is in Hartsville, South Carolina, about 83 miles southeast of Charlotte.

“It’s a smaller school, but it had everything I needed, too,” Snyder said. “It was near family. That was the main thing I was looking for.”

All three athletes discussed the difficulties of getting noticed.

Snyder said most volleyball recruiting comes via travel ball, and she moved to Europe ahead of her junior season, a critical moment in the process. So, she sent her game film to at least 50 programs.

Chandler, meanwhile, had to fight against having a Universal Tennis Rating, a global rating system. So, he played in tournaments in other countries and went to showcases like the one in Cologne to get noticed.

Davis participated in wrestling camps at Lehigh, Penn State and the College of New Jersey to try and catch coaches’ eyes.

“The most important thing is you got to go to the States and go to camps,” Davis said. “They don’t really recruit people out here, so going to those camps and going to events in the States, they’ll really get your name out there.”

Chandler had one piece of advice for DODEA athletes looking to play college sports:

“Don’t make excuses,” he said. “Always try to find the best path to success, even if it’s not an easy one.”

Here’s a look at the other senior athletes competing in college the next academic year:

NCAA

Division I

Division II

Division III

NAIA

previous coverage

• Okinawa schools lead a slew of athletes into college ranks
• Two athletes from each DODEA-Pacific school honored for their fetes