Football fans in Europe should get acquainted, if they’re not already, with the Web site www.hsfootballeurope.net.

If you’re a Buffalo Bills’ fan, you have my sympathy. And not just because of the team’s lack of success in the post-Marv Levy era.

Nope, where you earn my condolences is for the cavalier way AFN television has treated the Bills’ first two games this year.

This blogger might have been on vacation, but some former DODDS-Europe standouts have wasted no time making names for themselves at the next level.

Former Heidelberg High School All-European Fallon Puppolo registered two assists last month as the Naval Academy won the 2009 Navy Soccer Invitational, according to the Academy’s Web site. Puppolo, a freshman, was one of four Middies named to the all-tournament team.

The weather turned out to be the biggest obstacle Tuesday evening for the Kaiserslautern Military Community All-Stars, who slogged through a 1 hour and 45 minute rain delay to claim a 10-0 victory over Ukraine in the championship game of Little League Baseball's European Regional tournament in Kutno, Poland.

Chris Holba pitched all five innings of the victory which earned the team of 11-12-year-olds a berth in the Little League World Series Aug. 21-30 in Williamsport, Pa.

According to KMC parent Wayne Daubert, Holba, whose older sister Katie is presently playing for KMC in the Senior League Softball World Series in Lower Sussex, Del., allowed just one hit and one walk and struck out 11.

The Kaiserslautern Military Community's 11-12-year-olds eliminated defending champion Italy from Little League Baseball's 2009 European Regional with a 7-2 victory in Monday's semifinals of that 11-nation event.

But fans of diamond sports might want to tip their caps to the baseball and softball programs from the birthplace of Giuseppe DiMaggio, father of Joe, Dom and Vince, anyway. Even though the Italians won't be making a return trip to the Little League World Series later this month in Williamsport, Pa., the champions of Italy will be represented in half of Little League Baseball's eight baseball and softball World Series.

The best 11- and 12-year-old baseball players in the Kaiserslautern Military Community opened pool play Tuesday in Little league Baseball's European Regional Tournament in Kutno, Poland.

Recovering from a debilitating 14-hour bus ride to the European headquarters of Little League Baseball, the KMC All-Stars, champions of Germany, downed the Czech Republic 8-1 on Tuesday and were to face England, a perennial power in this tournament and 16-4 victors over Turkey on Tuesday, on Wednesday.

Here's the latest on some local high-achievers:

Here's an idea for all us old-timers.

The recent trade of Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland brings together the two most successful former DODDS-Europe basketball players of all-time. O'Neal, who played with defunct Fulda as a 6-9 freshman in 1985 (incidentally, he wasn't chosen for the All-Europe team that year) joins Cavs' coach Mike Brown, a standout at Wuerzburg in the 1980s, in support roles for LeBron James for next season's Cavs.

Might be fun to put together all-time DODDS-Europe fantasy teams in basketball and football, made up of the former or current DODDS-Europe performers who were or are the best at their positions, all-time.