In front of friends, family and coaches, Bonduel High School senior Kaylee Rynish signed a National Letter of Intent to play softball at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa.
“I really enjoyed the coaches and just the whole facility there. It’s a small town. It makes me really feel like I’m at home,” Rynish said. “There’s just something about it that just told me that it’s going to be a good place for me.”
Ellsworth Community College posted a 4-47 record a season ago, including an 0-23 mark in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference under first-year head coach Kayla Farnsworth.
“She’s going to excel on and off the field,” Panthers assistant coach Katie Duroe said. “I think she is going to be an instant impact on our team as a freshman. I would not be surprised if she gets voted as a captain just based on how she is.”
Rynish, who has played catcher at Bonduel, earned second-team all-conference honors from the Central Wisconsin Conference-8 a season ago. She said she liked the coaching style, facilities and academics at Ellsworth.
“It turns out that I got the best fit going to Ellsworth,” Rynish said.
The school, located about an hour north of Des Moines, is about a six-hour drive from Bonduel. Duroe made the trek to Bonduel for the signing on Monday.
The Bears finished last season 8-15 with a 10-2 loss to Oconto in the WIAA Division 3 regional final.
Rynish, who has played softball year-round, has grown into a team leader, helping the other athletes improve over the course of each season.
“She is pretty intense; works hard. If I had a team of Kaylee Rynishes, wow,” BHS coach Chris Reinke said. “She’s an awesome kid; she’s a really awesome kid.”
Reinke said she is going to have a difficult time saying goodbye this spring to one of the best leaders she’s had in the program.
“It’s going to be pretty hard as we get to the end of the season. It won’t be a very pretty sight,” Reinke said. “It will be like one of my own kids leaving.”
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