trosenau@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — For 2025 New Ulm High School grad Kenzie Enter, being called a defensive anchor or a threat on the bases for the Eagles softball team was something she was used to hearing.

Those were always nice compliments, but she wasn’t going to let her last year of prep softball go by without developing yet another area of her game.

After hitting .297 last season as a junior, Enter became the Eagles’ top all-around hitter this season and was basically a guarantee to get on base every game she played. In fact, she got on base every game this season but one as she posted a batting average of .479 and an on-base percentage of .518.

File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School’s Kenzie Enter makes the final assist during the Section 2AAA Softball Tournament semifinals against Mankato East on May 24 at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

Her love and dedication for the game of softball also helped bolster her future as she will get to play on a softball scholarship next season with the Iowa Lakes Lakers of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II in Estherville, Iowa.

Her commitment wasn’t a quick process, as she wasn’t sure a year ago if she had interest in playing college softball until talking with Eagles head softball coach Kristi Andersen Loose.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play softball or not,” Enter said. “I had a few looks, but I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do or not. Then I had a call with Kristi one day, and we were just kind of talking about the season and everything.

“And she was like, ‘Well, I do know this one college in Iowa,’ and she kind of had a connection and we just kind of talked about it a little bit. I looked more into it and we went down there for a visit [late fall of 2024] and that was just kind of that.”

After talking with Andersen Loose, Enter got in touch with Iowa Lakes head softball coach Katie King, who has family in the New Ulm area, after King asked about Enter.

“She asked around kind of about me and then I did a little tryout and then I met with her and the coaches,” Enter said.

Enter said she liked her visit with Iowa Lakes a lot due to the smaller community size — around 5,900 people — and the team’s coaching staff.

“I just kind of loved it because it was like a smaller town and it wasn’t ginormous,” Enter said. “Then we got there and met with the coaches and just talking with them, [coach King’s] style sounded like Kristi’s and it just felt right. The other ones that we went to, they didn’t, I didn’t exactly have that feeling. But when we went there [to Iowa Lakes], everything was great.”

Enter said she also visited Winona State not pursuing softball and also checked out Rochester and thought of trying out for the softball team there. She also had an offer to play for Dakota County Technical College, but she ultimately decided she’d suit up for the Lakers next season.

The Lakers, who went 31-29 overall last season and 10-18 in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference, will look to further increase their winning percentage next season with new talent like Enter on the team.

Enter is already learning about her new Laker teammates and also reconnected with an old friend in the process in 2025 Nicollet grad Leah Bode.

“Our coach is super, super good with communication, she has all of us girls talking,” Enter said. “I’ve met some of the girls, not too many of them, but when we went down for orientation I met a couple and it was actually kind of cool. One of my friends that I used to play with when I was really little [Leah Bode], she actually committed there, and her sister also went there, so we just kind of reconnected and everything like that, so it was good.”

Enter stole 29 bases during her senior year to lead the Eagles and had just three errors, but her team-leading batting average and on-base percentage is what really stood out and made her not only one of the Eagles’ best defensive players but also one of the team’s best offensive players.

She also had 29 RBIs, seven doubles, three triples and a homer for New Ulm in her final season of Eagles softball.

As for what went into that offensive turnaround, Enter said it was a lot of strength training and practice learning how to direct the ball off her bat better to find spots in the field.

“I’m still more of a sacrifice [hitter], but I definitely put a lot of work in the offseason and I just saw the ball really well this season,” Enter said. “I just figured out how to make contact and figured out more angles that I could put on the ball to hit more spots rather than just swinging and hoping I hit it.”

Enter said it will be hard leaving her former teammates and adjusting to a new team, but she enjoyed her time with the Eagles despite falling short in the section championship to Mankato East the past two seasons.

“We wanted that state tournament, but we knew coming in this section was going to be super hard, so we just put all the effort that we could just to even make it to the section championship,” Enter said. “And when we made it there we were like, ‘OK, now we really have to push and get to the state tournament,’ because we knew East was going to come back. But it was good, the girls are amazing. We bonded so well this year and we all just really jelled. We didn’t have any drama, we all just got along and worked hard and worked well together.”