DePriest now in charge of DODEA-Europe sports

New DODEA-Europe athletic director Denny DePriest speaks in the former Sembach Middle School on May 27, 2026, in Sembach, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

Denny DePriest can recall every coach he had from kindergarten through Salisbury University, where he played lacrosse and made an NCAA Division III national-title game appearance.

He played at least three sports every year from some combination of cross country, indoor track and field, lacrosse, JV soccer and JV basketball at Old Mill High School in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the late 1980s.

Each coach influenced DePriest, who has completed more than 150 triathlons and three Ironman races.

He now gets to shepherd the next generation of athletes and coaches after being named the DODEA-Europe athletic director earlier this month. He takes over for Kathy Clemmons, who retired in December.

“I’m super excited to have this opportunity,” DePriest said. “For me, my mindset is pay it back to the coaches I had and pay it forward to the younger, aspiring coaches that want to come on board.”

The former Salisbury Seagull comes from a military family. Three generations before him – father, grandfather and great-grandfather – served, and DePriest himself joined the Army after college.

He stayed in for nearly a decade, mostly in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, with another year in South Korea. He was medically retired for injuries sustained from an accident while training for a triathlon.

DePriest started to pursue coaching at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the early 2000s. He eventually coached the Under-23 triathlon team and joined the national team staff in 2004.

In 2006, he moved to Germany. He started working in DODEA as a substitute teacher at Kaiserslautern High School and transitioned to Mannheim High School for a full-time teaching position as well as a coaching opportunity with the soccer team.

The Maryland native returned to Kaiserslautern afterward, where he went from teacher to his most recent job of vice principal. He’s also coached cross country, JV basketball and track.

“I learned more through sport about life than a lot of people have had the opportunity to embrace and endure,” said DePriest, who said he’s also an avid windsurfer and a novice guitar player. “The military wants you jump out of a plane, throw your ruck on and walk 18 miles. You learn from those experiences.”

DePriest said his time at the USOTC taught him how to look at things analytically. So he tries to consider numerous angles before making a decision.

“I’m a thinker,” DePriest said. “If you ask me a question, I might not respond right away because I need to process and reflect and at the same time look at the individual because there’s a lot of different nuances.

“I want to have a common-sense approach, but at the same time use data for analysis and analyze and adjust.”

He didn’t have a whole lot of time to think during his first week on the job.

His first day, May 18, coincided with the start of DODEA-Europe’s spring sports championships, which consisted of 12 competitions across four sports at eight locations in the Kaiserslautern Military Community.

DePriest said he wasn’t daunted by the task.

“I signed up for it,” DePriest said of being thrown into the deep end. “I’m willing to work hard. I’m burning the midnight oil. I got to do what I got to do.”