The Stuttgart Panthers’ Aurora Mayo, a second-year shooter, adjusts her rifle prior to shooting in the kneeling position during a marksmanship meet in Vilseck, Germany, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Vilseck coach John Sabala sought to drum up interest for this Saturday’s European marksmanship championships when he sent out email to his colleagues at Vilseck High School earlier this week.

In doing so, he also highlighted just how under appreciated the DODEA marksmanship scene can be.

Five of the six teams are ranked in the Top 20 nationally in their respective JROTC service competitions. Kaiserslautern is second for the Air Force, while Wiesbaden (ninth), Ansbach (11th), Stuttgart (12th) and Vilseck (19th) all sit with the Top 20 for the Army. Even Wiesbaden’s second team placed 18th in the Army.

The only team not ranked is Ramstein, a program making its first DODEA championship appearance at Vilseck High School – which is hosting the European tournament for the first time in at more than a decade.

In the past two seasons, Ansbach and Kaiserslautern won national titles for the Army and Air Force, respectively.

“It just flies under the radar that there isn’t anywhere in the States where you’d see this many nationally ranked teams shooting against each other every week,” Sabala said. “There isn’t another DODEA sport that comes close to the level of competition that we face every week.”

That competitiveness showed throughout the season. Only 161 points separated regular-season champion (Stuttgart at 5,716) and sixth place (Vilseck at 5,555).

The top trio’s spread is razer thin. Eastern Conference winner Stuttgart needed a 1,153-point performance during Jan. 25’s competition to pull away from Western Conference winner Wiesbaden by a total margin of 22 points. Defending champion Kaiserslautern finished 31 points behind the Panthers.

The individual season race was even tighter. The Top 5 individuals all finished with six points. Raider Amanda Garcia and Panther Aurora Mayo amassed 1,442 points, Warrior Cydnee Lassiter fell just one short of a three-way tie for the regular-season crown and Royal Leni Taylor and Panther Kathryn Gillooly totaled 1,436 in a tie for fourth place.

The regular-season performances point to high expectations for Saturday’s final.

“I think all the teams are going to be well prepared, well coached, well equipped. They’re highly motivated. There’s definitely people bringing their A-game,” Wiesbaden coach Allen Ashton said.

“They’re all going to be good. It’s not, ‘Hey, you got an easy shooter coming up you don’t have to worry about.’ You have to worry about every shooter that’s on the line. It’s amazing.”

When the marksmen line up inside Vilseck High’s multipurpose room on Saturday, they will face two changes from the regular season.

The first is the number of shots they will take. Normally, shooters aim at 10 targets each in three positions – prone, kneeling and standing – for a total of 300 possible points. At Euros, they have 20 shots in each position for a total of 600 points.

The second change is how the scores are tabulated. Vilseck is one of just three DODEA schools that have electronic targets along with Ansbach and Hohenfels, all Eastern Conference schools, and the only one with enough for 10 lanes.

As opposed to the paper version that must be scanned, the electronic system spits out scores after each individual shot. The shooters also aim at just one target instead of the 10 individual ones in each position.

That gives marksmen a boost because they can see their shot grouping more precisely than just through their scopes. However, it adds stress, as shooters could be distracted by calculating their scores and external factors.

“That can be a real motivator if you’re doing well, and it can cause some panic if you’re not doing so well,” Kaiserslautern coach Bill Conley said. “Everybody who’s in the audience, it’s flashed on the screen, too. You might have to contend with any yays or groans.”

All teams will be chasing Wiesbaden early, as the Warriors’ five shooters will go first along with three from Ansbach and two from Ramstein.

Still, nobody doubts who is being hunted. Stuttgart eclipsed 1,140 points three times in five competitions when no other team has done it twice. The Panthers also are the only ones to break 1,150 points this campaign.

The program hasn’t won a title since 2022, but many coaches still recalled the Panthers’ nine-year dynasty before this dry spell.

“Stuttgart, they had that era of dominance where they were untouchable,” Ashton said. “It looks like they’ve got their groove back on, so it will be interesting to see their skills.”