Her senior season was a fitting capstone to a stellar athletic career at Northampton: first team All-EPC in field hockey, starting point guard on the basketball team that reached the league and district championship games, and the EPC’s most valuable player in softball.

Taylor Kranzley is the 2022 Northampton Press Female Athlete of the Year.

Her senior athletic recognition from Northampton included the following awards: Harold M. Schisler Memorial Award (most varsity letters throughout high school), Louis J. Wolf Athletic Field Hockey Scholarship Award, the senior athlete awards for both field hockey and softball, and the scholar athlete award for field hockey.

Pete Schneider personally presented Taylor with his namesake scholarship award that goes to the senior athlete who competes in multiple sports and who has demonstrated qualities of leadership, dedication, and sportsmanship while placing team goals ahead of individual goals.

In an age of increasing athletic specialization, Kranzley excelled in all three varsity sports in which she participated.

“I feel like I would have been so bored playing one sport all year round,” she said. “I liked to keep myself moving between all three.”

As a field hockey player, Kranzley was a 4-time letter winner and was All-EPC three times, earning second-team honors as a sophomore and as a junior.

“Taylor was the heart of the team this season,” said K-Kids’ head coach Carrie Saul. “As a captain, she would help practices run smoothly, encourage teammates, help younger girls on the field and in drills, and command excellence from her teammates. She works just as hard in practice as she would in a game, and that shows her dedication to the team.”

Her basketball accomplishments were perhaps under-appreciated by those outside of the program. Her feel for the game as a point guard and a wing defender elevated her value beyond her point totals.

“I would have liked to have made All-EPC in all three, but I was never a big scorer,” Kranzley said. “I always wanted to get the assists. I was a big passer. I liked to feed it to Grace (Lesko) and Devyn (Demchak). I didn’t really beat myself up over it.”

If Kranzley had just played field hockey and basketball, she would have had a noteworthy Northampton career. Adding her exploits on the softball field put her among the best all-around athletes ever to compete for the Konkrete Kids.

Head coach Kristy Henritzy recounted Taylor’s impact on the team,

“Since her freshman year we realized what her talents were,” said Henritzy. “I’d say to her, ‘No matter what – you have no arms, no legs – you’re still going out to second base.’ Playing at 50 percent, she’d still be our second baseman.”

As a first-team All-EPC performer at second base the last two seasons, Kranzley helped lead the K-Kids to back-to-back district championships. If the entire 2020 season had not been wiped out by COVID, a three-peat for both achievements would have been a strong possibility.

In her 2022 MVP season, she batted .506 with a school-record 41 base hits. As potent a hitter as Kranzley was, defensively she was a virtuoso. Spectacular plays like her diving catch into the fence at Whitehall could fill up a highlight reel, but the ability to make even tough plays look routine was a mark of athletic genius that all softball fans could identify by just watching her take infield practice.

In college, Taylor will continue her academic and softball careers at Bloomsburg University and major in Criminal Justice.

Seven years from now she will be eligible for the Northampton Area High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The nomination form is already filled out.