Turbulent best describes 2025 for DODEA-Europe athletics.

Sports came to halt throughout the year, realignment saw schools move up divisions either in individual or all sports and other changes – sometimes last minute – threw curveballs to athletes, coaches and administrators.

Still, the world kept spinning, and DODEA athletes continued to compete for championships.

Here’s a list of the top stories of 2025 involving DODEA-Europe athletics:

Government shutdowns have stopped DODEA extracurriculars in the past, but politics created uncertainty with sports multiple times this year.

On March 12, one day before the start of the spring season, DODEA announced a halt to the opening weekend due to Pentagon orders to pause non-mission-essential travel and government travel card use.

The only event allowed to go on was a boys and girls soccer doubleheader between Kaiserslautern and Ramstein the next day because of the schools’ proximity.

Just hours later, though, a DODEA spokesperson said the organization had been given “the authority to relook” at the funding available, and the seasons began without a hitch – other than a few rescheduled contests.

Six months later when the federal government shut down on Oct. 1, sports actually did hit pause.

Yet a week after that, news came out that sports and other extracurricular activities were deemed excepted activities and allowed to restart.

Apart from tennis, fall sports championships were pushed back one week and missed competitions were made up.

DODEA-Europe shuffled its football divisions once again, this time with just a singular 11-man tier. Naples and Vicenza jumped up from Division II to join big schools Stuttgart, Ramstein, Kaiserslautern, Wiesbaden, Vilseck and Lakenheath.

The Wildcats were able to hold their own, finishing second in the South conference before dropping a 28-14 contest against the Royals in the semifinals.

The rest of the South Region – Rota, Aviano and Sigonella – joined the Benelux schools – International School of Brussels, SHAPE and AFNORTH – in nine-man football.

Spangdahlem, Alconbury and Baumholder made up the six-man competition.

In the end, Stuttgart returned to the top after a one-year hiatus, ISB won its first DODEA title since 2002 and Spangdahlem collected the six-man crown.

Whether these divisions hold up for next year remains to be seen.

Qualifying tournaments have been a staple of individual sports such as wrestling and golf.

Yet this fall, boys and girls volleyball teams found themselves eliminating teams before the finals. The teams met in six locations for qualifying competitions one week ahead of their respective European championships, where only four teams from each division took part.

The decision generally was not well received by coaches and athletes, as it took away from the carnival-like atmosphere of Euros. Others expressed concerns over teams being eliminated because the matchups appeared to be based on location and not season standings.

The South Region tournament held at Naples highlighted those criticisms. The Italian school hosted the Top three teams in the South standings – Bahran, Rota and Naples – with a combined regular-season record of 22-3.

Despite their views on the topic, the teams navigated the process to produce three girls champions. Ramstein came out on top in Division I for the first time since 2019, Black Forest Academy also ended a long trophy drought and Ansbach completed a four-peat.

The boys sport long had been the domain of DODEA-Europe’s South Region. Outside of BFA, no team north of the Alps had brought home a European crown.

Over the past five years, the sport expanded into Germany, the Benelux region and England. With 15 total teams, it was time for separate championships.

The North consisted of Division I schools Ramstein, Stuttgart, Vilseck, SHAPE and Lakenheath and small school Hohenfels. The South was all the teams in Italy, Spain and Bahrain plus BFA.

The split led to two new teams atop the podium. In the South, Bahrain collected its first title since a Mediterranean crown in 20215, and in the North, the Panthers won the championship in their inaugural season.

Coach David Brown saw his Warriors make the Division I title game in 2014 and 2017, only to fall short both times.

His 2024-2025 ball club avoided such heartbreak and put an end to a drought that began in the last millennium. The Warriors last won in 1999 when Lorenzo Brown (no relation to the current coach), was in charge.

Wiesbaden rode a near perfect first quarter by tournament MVP Jordan Thibodeaux and held off a late Ramstein surge to win 58-54 on Feb. 15 at the Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center.

It capped off an undefeated season. Along with Thibodeaux, Stars and Stripes’ 2024-2025 boys basketball Athlete of the Year, Jacob and Joel Idowu, Zion Thompson and others paced the Warriors.

Ramstein athletics blossomed at the right time early in the year.

The Royals repeated as the Division I boys and girls soccer champions with 2-0 and 3-1 wins over Stuttgart on May 22.

The boys used a stifling defensive effort and a pair of goals from Santiago Idarraga and Keiran Goodall to power past the Panthers. On the girls side, Claire Boynton and Ava Smith (twice) scored to complete a comeback.

Then, on the baseball and softball diamonds, the Royals once again proved themselves the cream of the crop with 8-4 and 10-0 wins over crosstown rival Kaiserslautern on May 23.

Two-out rallies proved to be the difference for the baseball Royals, while pitcher Kelsey Moya tossed a no-hitter to send off coach Kent Enyeart with a title.

After coming close against the boys multiple times, the girls finally got their time in the spotlight.

And shine they did. Starting with Ramstein’s Lilianna Greene at 105 pounds, eight girls became the first in DODEA-Europe history to bring home crowns during the 2025 European wrestling championships on Feb. 8.

The scenes were electric, and the matches like the first one between Greene and Rota’s Quenette Kirkconnell, which went back and forth, showed how invested everyone at Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center was in the sport.

Others winning were Ramstein’s Liberty Snyder (110) and Genesis Esparza (115), Alconbury’s Richele Reyes (120), Sigonella’s Rickalia Goss (130), Stuttgart’s Violet Tomko (140), Naples’ Audrey Pounds (155) and Kaiserslautern’s Kaelyn Ronnau (170).

Multiple coaches and athletes described the conditions at this fall’s cross country championships as the worst they’ve experienced at a race.

A steady rain on Nov. 1 made the course at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Baumholder, Germany, a muddy mess. Falling happened to numerous runners – and multiple times at that.

AFNORTH senior Logan Conrad led from start to finish to take home the boys’ individual crown. Wiesbaden sophomore Linden Pickler, meanwhile, took home another season-ending championship on the girls side. Pickler won the Kansas 6A title in 2024.

Under coach Matt Wise, the AFNORTH Lions are used to playing and winning championships.

On Feb. 15, they added to the program’s legacy. Behind performances from Selah Skariah, Emery Koger and Hadley Keeton, AFNORTH defeated Hohenfels 47-34 at the Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center to win its third Division III title in four straight title-game appearances.

Joining the Lions with their third Division II title in four years was American Overseas School of the Rome. The Falcons rallied to defeat Vicenza 27-25 via a Gloria Olivieri layup in the closing seconds.

Then, the most successful Division I program in the last decade repeated as champion, when Stuttgart held off upstart Vilseck 43-35. Hannah Holmes led the way with 15 points in the first half.

For the past four years, Ramstein’s Tristian Chandler and the Kaiserslautern girls dominated their respective tennis tournaments.

This fall, no obstacles stood in the way for new blood to bring home championships at the T2 Sports Health Club on Oct. 25.

In boys singles, Kaiserslautern senior Jace Martin outlasted Vicenza’s Jacob McGovern in a back-and-forth thriller 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

Girls singles found its newest stud in the form of freshman phenom Pennie Wolff, who dropped just one game the entire European championships. She ended the final with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Stuttgart’s Bella Farias.

Then, after three years of trying and two title-match losses, Vicenza duo Annika Svenson and Addie Wilson finally got that elusive European crown with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ramstein’s Brooke Vinson and Scarlett Hosey.

And while not new faces, Riccardo Averni and Giovanni La Piana d’Orlandi made Marymount history as the program’s first repeat boys doubles champs with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Vicenza’s Michael Gillett and Erik Findlay.