An FHS athlete has signed with a Division 1 program.
Through her three years with Panthers’ softball, Taylor Ensley has been a huge part of some very good teams. After multiple All-District selections, a District Player of the Year award, and helping the Panthers to a 2018 state runner-up finish, Ensley has officially signed with NC State University.
“It’s an incredible feeling, because I’ve wanted this since I was a little girl,” said Ensley at her signing party last Wednesday. “It’s just so amazing to see my dreams coming true. I couldn’t ask for a better support system - my parents, my family, my coaches are amazing. I couldn’t have done it without them. Also, my parents put me in this position by taking me all the way across the country, so it’s just an amazing feeling.”
At a short ceremony in the Drake Enterprises Education Center, several dozen friends and family gathered to congratulate Ensley on her commitment to the Wolfpack. As Ensley mingled and took photos with friends, her father, Todd, talked about the work his daughter had put in to earn her scholarship.
“Just really excited, and it’s a relief for her to be able to start to start this venture,” he said on asked about Taylor’s signing. “After all the years that she’s put in and busted her tail, it’s finally paying off … She put in her work, talked to all the college coaches, and really did her part that she had to do. She in played in the big games she had to at the right time and got noticed in the right spots.”
“We’re so happy and just so proud of her, because she’s worked so hard,” said Taylor’s mother, Kim, after making sure everyone had gotten a photo with the signee. “She’d stay many hours outside of school to go to practice and not like how she hits, and then she’ll go back and hit again. She just has great work ethic, and we’re so happy that she’s signing … She’s always wanted to go play D-I softball. It’s been her dream, and she worked at it and made it happen.”
In making up a part of the country’s #27-ranked recruiting class according to recruiting website Extra Inning Softball, Ensley’s years of hard work have paid off. After watching her contribute a .448 average, six home runs, and excellent infield defense in her last full season (her junior year was cut short by COVID-19 this spring), Ensley’s current coach said the Wolfpack will be getting an unselfish player who just wants to help her team win.
“Even as a freshman, all she wanted to do was be part of a team that she knew could go a long way,” said FHS coach Bobby Bishop. “We made it to the state championship game that year, and Taylor had always basically played in the infield. We were really short on outfielders, and she said’ You just put me somewhere; I’ll play’. The year before last she got to move back to the infield, and last year she was all over the infield helping us out. Her work ethic is phenomenal.”
In playing so many positions for a very talented Panthers team, Ensley will be a valuable piece for NC State coaches next school year, and it seems the Wolfpack in turn knows what it has in her. While last week’s signing cemented Ensley’s commitment to the university, in reality the senior has had her sights set on Raleigh for some time.
“I didn’t know where I wanted to go at first,” said Ensley on her decision to sign with the Wolfpack. “The camp that they first saw me at was probably the end of the summer my freshman year. She saw me literally hitting off a tee and said that she loved my swing and wanted me to come to camp. I was like ‘What the heck? That’s crazy, off a tee?’ It was just crazy how it happened; I would have never imagined I’d get recruited from doing that.”
More than two years after head coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift first saw her hitting off the tee, Ensley will join an NC State team that went 19-6 and ranked second in the ACC before COVID-19 cut its season short this spring. Now entering her final year at FHS, the senior texts Patrick-Swift and fellow members of her recruiting class at least once a week, and says she couldn’t ask for better teammates and coaches to begin her college career. While the senior is elated to officially join the Wolfpack, she said she still has unfinished business with the Panthers this spring.
“I’m all in with Franklin until I’m at NC State,” said Ensley. “I know that I’m going to have to show out and do even better than I had before. I worked so hard in the offseason hard that they will not question whatsoever … I think our team is gonna be so good this year. We lost some really great players last year, but we have some great freshmen. I give lessons to some of the freshmen that are coming up, and they’re phenomenal. I cannot wait to play with all of them, and I feel like we’re gonna have a well rounded team.”