The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball program landed another outstanding local star during the spring signing class as Portales, N.M. native Taylee Rippee officially signed on to join the Hounds for the 2019-20 season on Tuesday.
“We are extremely excited to announce the signing of Taylee Rippee,” said Eastern New Mexico head coach Josh Prock. “It is always great to be able to get our homegrown talent here at ENMU. Taylee is an outstanding basketball player and will do great things here.”
Rippee is the third student-athlete to sign with the Greyhounds during the spring signing period and the fourth overall, joining Jasmine Williams, Julia Chavez, and Taylor Hall to the 2019 class.
Rippee comes to Eastern after a very successful career at Portales High School, where she was a three-time All-District selection and the 2019 District MVP while also earning Second Team All-State in 2018. Rippee ended her Lady Rams career as the program’s all-time leading rebounder with 663 boards and was second in career scoring with 1276 points, which included setting Portales’ single game scoring record with 38 points against Artesia.
“Taylee is a tenacious player; she truly understands the effort it will take to succeed at the next level,” Prock added. “One of the greatest attributes Taylee has is that she understands the post position very well and knows how to get her shot off against the bigger players. Taylee is a versatile young lady who can score on the block and beyond the three-point line. She is tremendous off the court and does exceedingly well in the classroom as well.”
During her four years at Portales, Rippee helped lead the Lady Rams to the 4A State Championship during the 2017-18 season with a 50-39 win over Moriaty as well as two State Semi-Final appearances and a State Quarterfinal appearance.
The Greyhounds are no stranger to landing local talent as Rippee will join former Portales teammate Zamorye Cox, who helped lead Eastern to a 19-11 record and its second appearance in three years in the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament after appearing in 30 games and making 28 starts for the Hounds.
“When we first started here at ENMU six years ago, we wanted to make sure we put a fence around our state and not let the better players leave the state as best we could,” said Prock. “We felt we have been able to accomplish that over the years and we know Taylee will only continue that for us. Please join us all in welcoming this outstanding young lady to our program!”
