Chris Ensminger

Playing career

Ensminger played high school basketball at Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He then attended Valparaiso University from 1992 to 1996, scoring 1,061 points and grabbing 910 rebounds. He helped Valpo win Mid-Con titles in 1995 and 1996 and left as the school's all-time leader in career rebounds; that record stood for 21 years until Alec Peters broke it on January 16, 2017, against Wisconsin-Green Bay. His professional career began in 1996 with Tours Basket in the French 2nd Division ProB league, followed by stints with FC Porto in Portugal and the North Harbour Kings in New Zealand.

In October 1998 he signed with Namika Lahti in the Finnish Korisliiga. In 1999 he joined SSV Weißenfels of the German Basketball Bundesliga, quickly establishing himself as a dominant post player. After two years there he moved to fellow Bundesliga side TSK universa Bamberg (later Brose Bamberg), where over seven seasons he helped the club win German League championships in 2005 and 2007 and played in the EuroLeague and ULEB Cup. He spent the 2008–09 season with Paderborn Baskets and finished his playing career with a four-year stint at Telekom Baskets Bonn from 2009 to 2013.

In 485 Bundesliga games he totaled 5,438 points and 4,093 rebounds. He appeared in seven Bundesliga All-Star Games and earned Eurobasket.com's All-Bundesliga Center of the Year honors in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Coaching career

Ensminger became a coach as soon as his playing days ended, taking the helm of the Gotha Rockets in Germany’s ProA league in May 2013. He guided the team to the playoffs three years running, with semifinal appearances in 2015 and 2016.

The Rockets let him go on January 31, 2017. Before the 2017–18 season, he became head coach of BBU Allgäu/Memmingen, later called Orange Academy, in Germany’s top youth league, the NBBL. He also took on the role of Director of Development and Sports Performance for a player development company in Neu-Ulm.