Samantha Ennin

John Paul II (Plano, TX), McKinney, TX, c/o 2025
AthleticNET Bio

Samantha Ennin didn’t like to run when she was younger. She preferred basketball and only ran because her parents made her do it. 

“I kind of hated track because I hated running and my parents made me do it to stay in shape and because I was kind of fast,” she says. 

It wasn’t until her freshman year that her coach, Jeff Jackson told her she needed to try the jumps and “just do them for fun.”

She progressed phenomenally in her first year. She went from jumping 14-05.5 on March 17 to winning the TAPPS State Championships with an 18-03.25 on May 7. In the triple jump, she went from 30-11 to 37-10.25 to claim another state championship.

At one of those meets, Kenny Roseman was there. Roseman competed for Trinity Christian(Cedar Hill, TX) and still holds the TAPPS 4A State record of 48-07.5 which he set on May 8, 2009. He went on to compete at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and now runs J.U.M.P Smart Texas which has produced NCAA Champion and Collegiate Record Holder, Jasmine Moore who signed with Puma after finishing her career at UF this past year.

“Coach Kenny was at one of the meets that I jumped pretty well. He asked me to start training with him and since then I've been practicing with him and doing meets with him. I’ve just gotten a lot better.”

Before that time, “Sam” as she is called didn’t know what she was doing.

“I had no idea what I was doing. I kind of just did random stuff, trying to do what worked for a while. That took me pretty far, but it was really not until I started training with Coach Kenny that I learned technique,  how to do it and found a deep love for the sport.  I started to understand what goes into it and how to do better on my own and stuff like that. That's when I really became close with the sport and I knew what I was doing.“

She continued to play basketball at shooting guard. She was quick and athletic and was a defensive juggernaut. As she has gotten better in track and field, her aspirations in basketball have tapered. This upcoming year, she’s decided not to play.

With the help of Coach Roseman, she improved significantly in both her jumps and added indoor competitions this past season. On December 11, she set personal bests of 19-02.25 for the long jump  and 40-00.75 for the triple jump. She then competed at  Nike Indoor Nationals where she  finished 23rd in the long jump (17-07) and  12th in the triple jump (38-04.75). In addition to the physical aspects, Roseman has helped her with her mental approach.

“Anytime we had to compete, he would tell me to just stay calm and collected. I definitely couldn’t  have done what I've done so far without him. He's taught me basically everything I know about jumping.”

Outdoors, she captured another title in the TAPPS 6A State Championship. Her 20-01 in the long jump and her 40-10.75 in the triple jump marked the first time in TAPPS history that an athlete had broken 20 feet and 40 feet at the state championships.

At those same state championships, she finished third in the 100m in 12.06, second in the 200m in 25.54 and was part of her school’s runner-up 4 x 100 meter relay team that went 48.75 at the TAPPS 6A Championships. For her efforts, she was named Athlete of the Meet for the Lady Cardinal who finished second. She’d like to improve her speed this upcoming year so she can transfer it to the runway. 

“This year, I want to focus on a sprinting event. I don't know which one yet, but I want to really work in training to get really good. I want to PR in both my jumps tremendously and just want to become more consistent, as well. So those are my main goals along with getting better with nutrition and just being a better athlete.”

She also hopes she can enter bigger competitions like the Texas Relays. She’s from a smaller school and last year, she had some problems with her entry and didn’t compete. As she ages, she hopes to continue the progress she’s made thus far. She’s only been jumping for about a year under Roseman and with his track record she sees she can continue to progress.

“The main thing I think about is just maintaining that progress because it's one thing to have it now but it's another thing to maintain it for a long time. I'm just hoping that I can work hard and keep my success going for the rest of my high school and college career.”