European Football Milestones 2009:
In 2009, the DoDDS-Europe schools experimented with split football camps to save travel time for teams. Three hundred (300) players attended the football camp at Ansbach and one hundred eighty five (185) attended the camp at Bitburg. Thirty six (36) Coaches attended the Ansbach camp and twenty five (25) attended the Bitburg camp. The first European Football Camp was held in Fulda in 1987. One hundred twenty six (126) players and eighteen (18) coaches attended.
Three (3) new teams were crowned as Champions at the SUPER 6: Division III: Alconbury, Division II: Bitburg, Division I: Ramstein.
Division III
Division III became the 9-man league this year. This league was created for smaller schools, whose enrollments make it difficult to play 11 man football. Sigonella was the only new addition to 9 man football. Jeff Black (Alconbury) and Matt McKown (DoDDS Sponsor Walt Summerfield volunteer coach (Sigonella) were the new coaches in this 5 team league. Alconbury roared back from a 0-4 start to win the school’s second championship in history with wins over previously undefeated Sigonella 35-28 and a championship win over Menwith Hill 31-13.
Division II
Division II (12 teams) was the largest division this year.In a late move, because of enrollment, Wiesbaden moved up to Division I. Vicenza, Baumholder, Hohenfels and AFNORTH moved up. Naples was the only team to see a coaching change, as Dirk Lambertson took over for Dan Dittmeier. Bitburg won their 6th European championship in school history, in another great comeback story. After losing the first two games, the Barons’ bruising running game pulled them back into the playoffs with 3 regular season wins in a row. The Barons ran the table in playoffs with wins over Bamberg, ISB and three time defending champion Ansbach. The Barons became the third team to beat the Cougars in this decade with a 19-6 win in the final.
Division I
Division I (7 teams) grew this year with the late addition of Wiesbaden. Coaching changes saw Brian Hill taking over the reins at Patch and Carlos Amponin at Ramstein. Ramstein won their 10th European Championship with an undefeated season and a 35-21 championship win over Heidelberg on a rainy night and slippery field, as both teams skated and slipped. Heidelberg made it a close game by opportunistic defensive plays, advancing two fumbles for TD’s.
SUPER 6
The SUPER finals format was held at Baumholder for the 7th consecutive year. AFN surprised everyone by committing to broadcast the game on the Pentagon channel and to stream the game on-line. Attendance was still good, although the frequent rain caused many folks to watch on TV. The high temperature for the day was 46 degrees and fell to 39 for the final game at 5:30 PM. The rain and slippery field caused changes in game plans and, as always, raised concerns about needing a turf surface for championship games, but it was still a great day of football.
Local national play:
Many DoDDS teams played local National teams. In some cases, DoDDS teams had two games versus European teams. The opportunity to expand the schedule was a great opportunity. Sixteen pre-season and regular season DoDDs-European games were played. Two regular season games were cancelled. Ramstein and Kaiserslautern lost a game. Many partnerships were forged and new contacts were developed in this season.
2008 Milestones
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