Stuttgart's Hannah Holmes tries to score Wednesday, Feb. 12,2025, during the opening day of the DODEA-Europe Division I girls basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)

Hannah Holmes paused for a second when asked about her favorite sport.

The Stuttgart junior was near her basketball coach, Nathan Garrett, who earlier in the day told her she could have a future in basketball if she kept at it.

Holmes responded volleyball, but the fact she even debated it for even a second shows cracks for basketball to take over.

The reason for that is her performance for the Panthers during the 2024-2025 girls basketball season. Holmes helped lead Stuttgart to its second straight DODEA-Europe Division I crown, being named tournament MVP.

Her exploits on the courts this winter earned her Stars and Stripes’ girls basketball Athlete of the Year.

“I didn’t think I was going to get all-stars or all-tournament or even MVP,” Holmes said. “That’s something I’m really proud of myself of what I can do, and it makes me realize everything I’m capable of and what I can push myself to become.”

The daughter of Nate and Sara Holmes didn’t light up the world with her statistics: She averaged 8.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.1 steals per game (all of which she led the team) and shot 33.9% from the field.

Still, the Panthers dominated nearly every opponent. Stuttgart (18-2) outscored its foes by nearly double, 747-383. Only three teams – Kaiserslautern, Ramstein and Vilseck – eclipsed 30 points against the Panthers, and just the Falcons managed that multiple times with three.

The Panthers also gave up 10 or fewer points in five games.

Holmes credited the team’s defensive mindset and the camaraderie as the keys to the squad. Those also were the reasons she, senior Mia Snyder, freshman Eve Henry and juniors Addie Jennings and Serenity Sampson, among others, didn’t need to average double-digit points to carry Stuttgart.

“No one was outstandingly better than everyone else. Everything was pretty even,” Holmes said. “If we would have had one person that was amazing and everyone else was not as relatively good, then it would have caused some contention, and I’m glad we didn’t have much contention on our team.”

Her coach, though, sometimes wanted more from his junior captain. At one point in the season, he had a conversion with the Tucson, Ariz., native about leading by example on and off the court.

The talk worked, according to Garrett. He highlighted two games – Stuttgart’s last regular season game and the championship game, both against Vilseck – that showcased the change in Holmes.

On Feb. 8 in Vilseck, the Panthers needed to win to get the top seed in the tournament after losing the previous night. Holmes didn’t come off the floor as Stuttgart defeated the Falcons 45-44.

Then, in the championship game on Feb. 15, Holmes dropped a team-high 15 points – all in the first half – and completed a double-double with 10 rebounds during the Panthers’ 43-35 victory at Clay Kaserne’s Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center in Wiesbaden, Germany.

“Once she kind of got into that mindset, her whole game changed,” Garrett said. “In my opinion, she started playing her best basketball the last three weeks of the season and definitely come championship game, she played the game of her life that night.”

That title contest marked the fourth time over an eight-day span in which the Panthers and Falcons squared off. Over those games, Stuttgart went 3-1 and squeaked the point differential at seven.

Stuttgart’s eight-point win in the championship was the largest margin of victory of the four games. Holmes said the Panthers learned a lot from the first three matchups that they used in the title game.

“We definitely knew what they were thinking about us and how we were running things,” Holmes said. “So, when we pulled out some plays that hadn’t shown them yet or defenses, they weren’t used to that, and they didn’t know how to adjust as quickly.

“I was so tired, but I was so happy (we won).”

With one year remaining in her career, Holmes expressed a desire to improve her game and help Stuttgart chase a three-peat. She mentioned pursuing all aspects of her game but said she especially wants to work on her post game.

Garrett, meanwhile, emphasized other skills.

“What I find lethal in those center and post players, if they are consistently well at shooting on the outside, it totally opens up the whole rest of their game,” Garrett said. “Even doing a little handle work – having the ball, dribbling through it, become comfortable with it – those two things she works on, I think she would be a phenomenal player next year.”