Europeans: Day Three
 Well, the big DoDDS tennis tournament ended yesterday. We gathered at Baumholder at 7:30 a.m. in order to have plenty of time to get to Wiesbaden. And sure enough, the same nutty driver showed up to take us. I could tell he'd gotten the message about our complaints, but he seemed in a jovial mood and didn't try and beat me up.
The tennis matches were intense for the most part. We saw the fifth and third place games followed by the finals in each of the four areas. My seat gave me a great vantage point for the girls doubles and boys singles matches amongst a small crowd gathered for the event.
The match-up between Jun Koide and Devin Hayes was pretty intense, though I didn't think Jun played anywhere near his best. From what I saw of his earlier matches, he's capable of giving Devin a much better run for his money, but on this day, it wasn't meant to be. Devin dominated from the start and the outcome was never in doubt.
Here's a clip from the match where Devin overpowers Jun and puts away one of his lobs.
So in the end, it was Devin accepting all the accolades that Jun got last year. If anything, he's a testament to how hard work and dedication can pay off.
It wasn't all gloomly for Jun Koide. His little brother was one-half of the winning doubles team. Now that was an interesting match-up. These little guys up against the six-foot plus giants from Ramstein. They're proof that David could actually take down Goliath. Their win, the girls doubles win, and Jun coming in second wrapped up the team points championship for the International School of Brussels. They were a pretty satisfied bunch.
And even though my team walked away empty-handed, if anything they're more excited about tennis after these last few days than ever before. Just hope they hold onto that excitement until next season.
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