For Kyrie Bye-Nagel, announced as DODDS-Europe’s 2006 Female Athlete of the Year Thursday, individual glory has come with the territory during four years at Hanau High School.

The 2006 graduate made the All-Europe team in soccer four times — the second team as a freshman and the first team three times. Her senior year, she scored 23 goals and made four assists in just 12 games.

In basketball, Bye-Nagel was a two-time first-team All-European and led the Panthers to the European Division II title in 2005. Her senior year, she averaged 12 points, four assists, three steals and three rebounds.

And even in volleyball, the sport she played just for fun, she made the All-Europe second team as a senior.

“Not only is she a standout player, but she’s a standout team player,” Mannheim boys basketball and girls soccer coach John Crockett said by phone Thursday. “Sometimes when you’re a standout player, you can get away with being selfish. I’ve never seen Kyri make a selfish play.”

Bye-Nagel was told of the selection by her mother Thursday morning. “My mom woke me up and said I’d won,” she recounted. “I said, ‘That’s cool.’

“It’s a big deal,” she said. “I’ve always wanted it.”

According to her soccer coach, Sam Cassou, desire was just part of the process.

“It’s a great reward for her hard work for all her four years at Hanau,” he said.

Bye-Nagel, Hanau’s 2006 valedictorian, plans to attend Davidson College in North Carolina, where she’ll concentrate on soccer. She’s going on an academic, not athletic, scholarship, Cassou said, but athletics will still play a big part in her life.

“I’ll probably be a little intimidated,” she said about the prospect of playing college soccer, “but I’m not planning on thinking about that until later.”

“She always played to win,” said Mannheim’s Crockett, “and always helped her teammates play better.”

And in the process, altered Hanau athletics.

“She helped Hanau change the girls sports programs,” Cassou said. “We’ll really miss her.”

Migrated