James Ensley, the longtime boys basketball coach at Fort Vancouver, has been named the boys basketball coach at Battle Ground High School. Ensley is a 1996 graduate of Battle Ground. Photo courtesy Ben Jatos

Ensley’s position as athletic director at Fort Vancouver eliminated due to budget cuts

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

James Ensley was not looking to leave the school that has meant so much to him for most of the past two decades, but life’s twists and turns put him on a new path.

A path home.

“It’s an opportunity to go back home and coach where I grew up,” Ensley said.

Ensley has accepted the position of head coach for the Battle Ground boys basketball program.

“I’m just really grateful for this new opportunity to go back home and get things started,” said Ensley, a 1996 graduate of Battle Ground High School. “I’m a little nervous. I’ve got work to do. It should be exciting.”
But also bittersweet.

Ensley is leaving Fort Vancouver, where he was the boys basketball coach for the past 10 years and was an assistant coach in basketball and other sports for eight previous years. He also ascended to the position of athletic director at the school.

“It changed my whole life,” he said of his time at Fort Vancouver. “My whole outlook on life has been changed from my opportunity to coach at Fort Vancouver High School. I grew up as a person, a coach, a man. The kids have taught me more than I’ll ever teach them about life and perseverance and toughness. It was an amazing experience.”

Vancouver Public Schools, as previously reported, is maneuvering through a $35 million budget shortfall.

Ensley learned recently that his position as athletic director at Fort Vancouver was going to be eliminated. He was told he still has a job with VPS, but the district did not know where Ensley would be placed.

That led Ensley to look for another opportunity, and when his former school had a coaching opportunity, he inquired about the position.

Battle Ground announced Ensley’s hiring as boys basketball coach in an email to staff on Wednesday.

“They’re doing great things,” Ensley said of the Battle Ground athletic department.

He said he is looking forward to learning from football coach Mike Woodward — also a Battle Ground graduate — and baseball coach Seth Johnson. “I’m really excited to go into that with two guys with a lot of experience.”