2024 was a year to remember for sports in Europe

2024 felt like a sporting festival in Europe, with France hosting the Olympics and Paralympics and Germany being home to the European men’s soccer championships.

While maybe not on the same scale, sports involving dependents of the American military community in Europe electrified parents and fans throughout the year.

Here’s a look at the Top 10 sports stories for military dependents in 2024:

Kaiserslautern Kingfish Jacob Furqueron makes the turn in the 13-year-old boys 100-meter butterfly during the European Forces Swim League Short-Distance Championships on Feb. 10, 2024, at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion at the Nationaal Zwemcentrum de Tongelreep in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

10. EFSL gives AAAA sendoff for Eindhoven swim arena

The European Forces Swim League had called the Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion at the Nationaal Zwemcentrum de Tongelreep in Eindhoven, Netherlands, home for the fifth-straight year and sixth out of the last seven when it held the EFSL Short-Distance Championships.

With the arena undergoing renovation, though, the league will have to search for another home or the meet. But before that happened, the swimmers across European and Bahrain said good-bye in fine fashion.

Multiple records were broken. Kaiserslautern Kingfish Emma Heaphy already had set the 9-year-old girls’ 50-meter breaststroke in the fall, but she shattered that in February with a performance in a time of 42.60 seconds. The young phenom did so with former Brunssum Orca Hylcke de Beer, the previous record-holder, in the crowd.

Then, Stuttgart Piranhas Elijah Love claimed something his celebrated older brother Brayden couldn’t with an EFSL record in the 11-year-old boys’ 50 backstroke. Love finished in 34.57, beating the five-year mark of 35.33 by David Cicero.

Along with the new high marks, Kaiserslautern’s Jacob Furqueron earned a AAAA rating in the 13-year-old boys 400 freestyle. That meant his time was in the top 2 percent of athletes in his age group in the event.

Ramstein’s Grayden Taylor putts on the No. 13 green during the final round of the DODEA European golf championships on Oct. 10, 2024, at Woodlawn Golf Course on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

9. Taylor wins exciting golf playoff, Ramstein and Kaiserslautern share girls title

Despite miserable conditions in the driving rain, almost everybody stood overlooking the 18th green at Ramstein Air Base’s Woodlawn Golf Course to watch Ramstein’s Grayden Taylor and Stuttgart’s Tyler Korell.

And the duo didn’t disappoint during a playoff for the boys golf European individual title on Oct. 10.

Korrell, a freshman, put Taylor into a make-or-break 20-foot bogey putt to extend the tournament to another hole. And to the amazement of the crowd standing on the patio, he sank it to send the duo to the No. 10 hole.

There, Taylor hit his tee shot just a few feet away from the pin and parred the hole, while Korell was unable to overcome his opening shot into the sand trap.

On the girls side, Kaiserslautern kept its streak of team titles going – although this time with company. Behind the effort of now three-time individual champion Asia Andrews, the Raiders tied rival Ramstein at 110 points.

Kaiserslautern’s Katelynn McEntee reloads her rifle during the prone portion during the DODEA-Europe marksmanship championship at Ansbach Middle High School on Jan. 27, 2024. McEntee finished with a a team high score of 576. (Michael Slavin/Stars and Stripes)

8. Raiders shoot to top marks

Kaiserslautern’s marksmanship program completed its meteoric rise under coach Bill Conley on Jan. 27 at Ansbach High School.

The Raiders dethroned defending-champion Ansbach 2,270-2,263 for their first marksmanship crown. Vilseck and Wiesbaden came in third and fourth with 2,254 and 2,253 points, respectively.

Ace Katelynn McEntee led the defining performance in the team competition, hitting a high score of 188 out of 200 potential points in the standing position. Considered the toughest position, Kaiserslautern outshot the Cougars by 17 points in standing.

McEntee herself finished second with 576 total points, just two behind champion Alexander Pohlman of Ansbach.

The Raiders followed this feat by winning the JROTC Air Force championship with 4,622 points on Feb. 15-17 at Camp Perry, Ohio. On March 21-23, the Raiders placed eighth overall at the JROTC National Championships at Camp Perry with 4,627 points.

McEntee missed out on the final in the latter event by just one point, finishing ninth at 1,173.

The Ramstein Royals celebrate winning the DODEA European Division I baseball championship Friday, May 24, 2024, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)

7. Royals outlast Panthers to retake title on the diamond

Ramstein and Stuttgart have solidified their rivalry across various sports in recent years, but perhaps no game was tighter than the baseball championship contest this spring.

The Royals needed a homer from Jaxon Lundell in the top of the eighth inning to give them a 7-5 extra-innings victory on May 24 at Southside Fitness Center on Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

The sophomore’s two-run shot – his first in his high school career – came two innings after Stuttgart’s Jackson Boggs parked a three-run homer to tie the game at 4-4.

Up to that point, the Royals enjoyed a four-run advantage before the Panthers finally did some damage against Ramstein starter Christian Roy and reliever Conor McGinty, who ended up with the win.

The victory returned the Division I European title to Ramstein, which had lost it in 2023 to the Panthers.

Defending European singles champion Tristan Chandler jumps while hitting the ball during a semifinals match against Giorgio delli Falconi during the DODEA European tennis championships at T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Oct. 25, 2024. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)

6. Chandler makes history on tennis courts

Tristan Chandler had an aura of invincibility around him in the DODEA-Europe boys tennis scene – and for good reason.

The Ramstein senior, who played for Kaiserslautern his freshman year, ran roughshod over competition, dropping just one set (to Marymount’s Leonardo Proietti in the 2023 title match) throughout his career.

That form carried over to his senior campaign, where Chandler lost just three games – all in the championship tournament.

When the final ball fell during his 6-1, 6-1 victory over Vicenza’s Mark Gillett in the final on Oct. 26 at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany, Chandler knew he had made history as the first boys tennis player since at least 1970 to go 4 for 4 on individual crowns.

The Ramstein ace did the research himself with his parents, pouring through newspaper archives to see the results of every championship tournament.

Stuttgart’s Alex Guthrie blocks a shot by Ramstein’s Christian Roy in the boys Division I final at the DODEA-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Germany, Feb. 17, 2024. The Panthers beat the Royals 47-36 to take the DI title. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

5. Boys basketball champions go unbeaten in divisions, Stuttgart girls give Hess perfect sendoff

Hohenfels made Spangdahlem earn the Division III championship at Clay Kaserne’s Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center on Feb. 17 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Yet after erasing a four-point deficit with 2:22 remaining in the game, the Sentinels completed the perfect season with a 65-63 victory. The win ended Baumholder’s stranglehold on Division III while finishing Spangdahlem’s rise up the small-schools’ ladder over a three-year span.

They weren’t the only ones to go unbeaten during the season. Stuttgart managed to repeat as Division I champions with a 47-36 victory over Ramstein.

In perhaps the most impressive team performance that day, Vicenza blasted Naples 76-37 in the Division II final. It marked the program’s first crown in a decade, according to longtime coach Jesse Woods. The Cougars’ 15 wins was triple what they recorded in the 2022-2023 season.

On the girls side, Stuttgart allowed longtime coach Robin Hess to sign off in style with her sixth title in her seven years in charge.

The Panthers held off Ramstein without one of their best players, Ella Kirk, for the final 6 minutes of a 33-26 win. And they needed the smallest player on the court and the tournament MVP, 5-foot Macayla Hines, to corral a pair of big rebounds, as well as a trio from sophomores Serenity Sampson and Hannah Holmes, late to stave off the Royals.

The Wiesbaden Warriors celebrate their Division I DODEA-Europe volleyball title after beating Kaiserslautern 25-21, 25-21, 17-25, 25-10 in the final at the European championships at Ramstein Air Base, Nov. 2, 2024. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

4. Wiesbaden girls volleyball, Ramstein boys soccer upset the field

It’s hard to call the Wiesbaden girls volleyball team, which had won the previous two Division I titles, and the Ramstein boys soccer team, which always seem to be in the mix once the tournament rolls around, underdogs.

Yet the Warriors entered this fall’s European championships as the fifth seed and looked dead in the water a week and a half before the tournament, getting swept by Ramstein and Vilseck.

When all was said and done on Nov. 2 at Southside Fitness Center on Ramstein Air Base, though, the Warriors were the queens of the court again. They lost just one match all tournament – their opener against top-seed Kaiserslautern – and then avenged said loss with a 25-21, 25-21, 17-25, 25-10 win over the Raiders. Three-time European champion Bridget Pidgeon earned tournament MVP for her performances throughout the competition.

In the spring, the Royals entered the soccer championships as the third seed, but they lost four times to top two seeds – once to Stuttgart and three times to SHAPE – before the knockout stages.

That’s when it became a revenge tour. Ramstein upset No. 1 Stuttgart in penalties during the semifinals, 4-1. Captain Maxim Speed scored on his second free kick of the match to make it 2-2 in the 77th minute.

Then, in the final, the Royals shocked everybody in the stadium when just 30 seconds into the match, sophomore left winger Keiran Goodall crossed the junior striker Joseph Yost who headed the ball past SHAPE goalkeeper Garrett Duval.

Goodall assisted another goal by Jace Monson in the 65th minute, and the Royals held on for a 2-1 victory over the Spartans on May 23 at Ramstein High School.

Makiah Parker, a senior at Wiesbaden High School, crosses the finish line with a commanding lead to win the girls 400 meter varsity dash at the 2024 DODEA European Championships at Kaiserslautern High School in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on May 24, 2024. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes)

3. Wiesbaden’s Parker blitzes to final DODEA record

Makiah Parker wowed the DODEA European track scene from the first moment she stepped onto the tracks at Wiesbaden High School in 2021.

And she continued that until her last meet at Kaiserslautern High School on May 23-24. The Warrior graduate went a perfect 4 for 4 in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes in European finals during her high school career, and she anchored the Warriors’ 4×400 relay team to the title this spring as well.

Under the tutelage of her father, Michael, Makiah Parker set two DODEA records this spring. The first came in the 100 on May 11 in Frankfurt with a time of 11.71 seconds. Then, at the European championship meet, Parker obliterated the 400 record, finishing in 55.96 seconds. The previous mark was 57.28 set by former Kaiserslautern athlete Jada Branch in 2018.

It was the perfect end to one of DODEA-Europe’s finest careers in recent years. And she is taking those talents to the next level, as Parker competes at Division I program Cal State Bakersfield.

Ramstein running back Kydan Echard stiff-arms Stuttgart senior Zach Poe during the Division I DODEA European championship game on Nov. 1, 2024, at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

2. Ramstein, SHAPE, Sigonella return to the top of football scene

The 2024 football season saw three programs recover their status as Europe’s best programs with crowns this fall.

The Royals finally ended Stuttgart’s four-year reign in Division I, dominating the field with a perfect 7-0 season to claim the program’s first title since 2018.

Ramstein’s hammer personality nailed their opposition in every game, outscoring foes 241-68. Stars and Stripes’ football Athlete of the Year Kydan Echard bruised his way for 1,065 yards and 13 touchdowns.

SHAPE, meanwhile, returned to the DODEA fold for the first time since 2019 with the creation of a new nine-man football division.

At the end, the Spartans came back against a pesky Lion squad in the title game 28-24 behind the arm and legs of senior star Keller Schutt.

The crown marked the program’s first since at least 2004 and the first final appearance since 2013, according to coach Jason Neago.

In Division III, Sigonella completed its own resurrection story, going from a program that once shuttered to a title with a 56-6 victory over Alconbury in the championship game. It was the team’s first title since 2010.

The Jaguars ran roughshod over the six-man division, mercy-ruling every opponent en route to a perfect 6-0 record. In a type of football that seems more like track meets at times, Sigonella bucked the trend by allowing just 25 points all season long.

Ramstein’s Sophia Seaburgh and Stuttgart’s Camille Acosta listen to advice from the crowd during a 105-pound girls wrestling wrestling on Dec. 7, 2024, at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The bout was the first girls’ match contested at Ramstein High School. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

1. Girls grapple in their own division

For years, parents, coaches and administrators pushed for a girls division in wrestling.

That lobbying finally paid off this academic year when DODEA-Europe included girls wrestling in its offerings.

DODEA-Europe joined 45 states in recognizing it as an official sport. Girls wrestling is one of the fastest-growing varsity sports, with 64,257 athletes participating in 2023-2024, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The move comes after two girls – Stuttgart’s McKinley Fielding in 2020 and Ramstein’s September Snyder in 2023 – came up just short of winning individual European championships against the boys.

Dec. 7 marked the first matches. Among those first tilts was a contest between Sophia Seaburgh of Ramstein and Camille Acosta of Stuttgart at Ramstein High School, which turned into an electric moment with the crowd and the wrestlers themselves.

The girls will be competing for their first-ever European titles during the season-ending championships on Feb. 6- 8, 2025, at the Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center.