Discussion: Promising New US Orienteer Moving to Germany

Here in Florida the most competitive orienteering is among the schools participating in the high school JROTC series.
One of the top students this year is a young man just taking up the sport and he seems to be a 'natural'. Unfortunately for his school the boy is being transferred with his family to the USAF base in Ramstein.
What are the prospects and procedures for him to link up with a German OL club in the area or does anyone know if the Ramstein base has an orienteering group?
Sorry for the late notice but I must pass on any information by 12-19

Here you go.

Sorry.

Florida is one tough place. Totally cut-throat competitive orienteering down there.

Gord, I am sure there are many orienteering clubs in Germany. You can probably find links through the IOF website or by googling Ramstein orienteering. They might not have English translations on their club websites, so you might have better luck trying that in German.

I don't see a huge number of German orienteers on Attackpoint, probably because it is primarily an English language forum. But I am sure you could get a response by contacting their national federation.

This link should be useful in finding the nearest clubs: http://www.orientierungslauf.de/5/3

Germany, like the U.S., does not have a lot of strong elite orienteers but they have an active orienteering community and many good events around the country (and good roads with no speed limits so you can get there fast).

Next to Ramstein are the clubs TV Bierbach and TV Oberbexbach. As far as I can read they offer a regular training.
At the map http://www.orientierungslauf.de/5/3 klick on "Saarland".

A list of all O-events in Germany you can find here:
http://www.orientierungslauf.de/3/1

Feel free to contact for further help.

From a quick look at the map, the nearest clubs seem to be in Saarland, about 50 km from Ramstein. There might be a training group closer by that is not part of an official club. (My own club is about 40 km away from my home, but the local university offers training as well).
I know someone from Saarland (actually an official tied in with junior programs) whom I will point to this thread.

I guess I opened myself up for that one tRicky. Ha Ha Ha.
Yurets: Florida Orienteering for the over 21 crowd is no doubt a disappointment for someone of your caliber. However about ten times a year upwards of 150 to 200 high school age orienteers compete for the honor of their JROTC unit and school.
Some participate for 3-4 years. They start on the novice Yellow course and progress through Orange to Green. A couple of the school teams travel to Georgia and beyond. However most of the teams would enter 4-5 events at most in a year.
Among the hundreds of students who participate a few stand out as just getting it
faster than others do. This young lad from Robinson High School is one of those.
Thanks to st and Ansgar a very welcoming contact is being passed on to the lad. I sure hope he takes up the opportunity, not only to further his orienteering but also to build friendships outside the base wires.

I am in Germany as well. There is a lot of good orienteering around Ramstein. Contact me and I can help you out if necessary.

You might also want to check the Belgian competitions; it's not too far away and they have a pretty active scene. For the Flemish part the website is www.orientatie.org, the Walloon region www.frso.be.

The Alsace region in France is pretty good for orienteering too, see http://www.alsaceorientation.fr/

the question is, why is USA increasing their presence in Ramstein.

Who said we were increasing it?

Sounds like a business-as-usual US military personnel transfer. Probably concurrent with another person leaving...

Well, do you hear anyone saying "oh, we are coming back, tell us where we can volunteer for next A meet?"

NO.

What do you mean?

Wowzer, Attackpoint is weird these days.

Actually, two of our club members recently returned from two year overseas tours of duty. Rotation is the name of the game.

Weird, these days? Always............

This is the reason:
More Americans Than Ever Are Renouncing Their Citizenship

Attaaackpoiiiint.... stahhhhhp.

Actually it would be hard to beat the mass renunciation of citizenship that took place in 1860

But why has a simple request to help a 17 year old boy get connected to the orienteering community in Germany suddenly become an excuse for Yankee bashing?
All the useful information went to the boy last week. Thank you again folks.

If you hate the Pindostan so much, I hear Kiev is a fun place to be nowdays.

Chill out. FYI, nowadays they love "Pindostan" in Kiev

Tch tch. Tis the season of goodwill. You should only put in nice things at this time of year.

One of the coolest things about military moves every 1-4 years for our family is that we've gotten to be part of so many different clubs across the US. We are grateful to every member of the orienteering community who has welcomed us for our temporary stays, and look forward to new friends with our next move.

Best wishes to the family headed to Ramstein. What a great place to be stationed, and not just because there will be more opportunities for orienteering. Can you imagine spending your final years of high school abroad? So much to see! We'd go back in a heartbeat, but there are very few jobs over there any more. Only the lucky ones!