Role Reversal: Setter Aadyn Polk’s journey a big part of Parkview Baptist’s Success Story
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
BATON ROUGE – Parkview Baptist senior setter Aadyn Polk leaned back with an ear-to-ear grin.
The thought of progressing into one of the state’s top setters, one who will sign a college scholarship next month, and lead one of the state’s top programs back to the state tournament, brings a smile to Polk’s face at the recollection of her journey.
“I would have probably laughed,” Polk said of the thought of distinguishing herself at a position she will continue in college. “I don’t think I ever doubted myself. It was a long journey to get to where I am. I was pretty bad my freshman year. It’s like night and day now. I don’t know if I would have believed it.”
The 5-foot-10 Polk was built more in the mold of a hitter or blocker, but at the insistence of Parkview Baptist coach Allison Leake, began learning the intricacies of setting, complete with all of the tangible and intangible responsibilities associated with becoming the heart and soul of a volleyball team.
Talent was never an issue for Polk, who also possessed the requisite competitive drive. Leadership and decision-making are acquired traits necessary for the job to make a team run smoothly.
“When she came in and we were like, ‘We’re going to make you a setter.’” Leake said of Polk. “She would laugh and say, ‘OK, whatever you think, coach.’ I knew she had a work ethic, I knew she had a love for the game. I knew she was extremely intelligent.
“There are certain things you have to look for in a setter,” Leake said. “She had pretty good hands, and she was strong. You can somewhat develop hands if they have a pretty good base. We just started working with her since her freshman year. She was one that was in the gym all of the time. She has worked so hard to get to where she is right now.”
Now a shiny gem among a collection of diamonds, Polk’s a veteran who’s been a key member of this year’s team that’s returning to the state tournament.
No. 3 Parkview Baptist (29-9) faces No. 6 E.D. White (28-11) at 12:20 p.m. in Thursday’s Division III state quarterfinal at the Lafayette Cajundome.
“Her decision-making and placement of the ball have evolved so much,” Leake said. “She’s able to set our outsides or Jana (Thymes) in the middle. She’s forcing balls to these hitters and putting it in a perfect spot for them. It’s beautiful. I think it’s hard to appreciate, unless you know where she came from as a freshman until now. It’s unbelievable.”
Polk dabbled at setter in middle school but didn’t play the position in the summer during the club season. Going into her freshman season, she began training with Leake, leading to sparse playing time in moments outside of the glare provided by taking on bigger opponents.
“I didn’t have a huge role, and when I got in, I got in,” Polk said.
Polk’s work ethic led to additional time trying to perfect her craft. There was time in the gym with Leake and also on her own during private workouts.
“It took a lot of work,” Polk said. “I was in the gym almost every day, just setting, just trying to get ready. My club teammates were really good for me. We were kind of like on a level playing field and able to grow with each other. My (club) coach was awesome and gave me a lot of feedback. Coach Allison was also in the gym with me a lot, too.”
Leake said it hasn’t been uncommon during her coaching career to take non-traditional setters and turn them into the very definition of the quarterback on the floor. The ability to direct traffic, communicate with hitters and deliver passes with precision from any area on the floor and keep blockers befuddled were part of the job description.
Then, during long rallies where defenses are seemingly picking up shot after shot, it can be deflating for a seasoned setter to find a hole with a change-of-pace tip.
“We laugh about it now because there’s been times where we’ve taken kids that have never set before and say, ‘You’re a setter. Someone missed the boat for you,’” Leake said. “Even as juniors, we’ll start to work with them. I’ve had kids that say, ‘Coach, I can’t be a setter.’ I’ve said if Aadyn can be a setter, you can be a setter.”
Polk continued taking the necessary steps toward cracking the lineup at Parkview Baptist, hitting from the right side as a sophomore, but still didn’t figure into a more prominent role until last season.
Her growing experience was part of her turnaround, along with her diligence in playing in the summer with her travel teams, exposing her to talented opponents on a grander scale.
“Club definitely helped because we see girls that are twice the size we are here,” Polk said. “There’s so much more in the volleyball world than just Louisiana. When we play teams from Texas and teams from the north, it’s kind of obvious that you have to step it up. I knew the girls would need the best version of myself, and I was coming into the (2024) season playing with Laurel Cassidy. I knew she would expect a lot from me. I had a lot to do.”
Leake explained that the first two years of Polk’s career were earmarked for skill development and learning the game. That was followed by her growing acumen of the game and working on the timing with her hitters to deliver pinpoint passes.
“That takes a long time,” Leake said. “She’s intelligent, and we knew that. From last year, through club, she really developed her decision-making, and now she’s on the court and she’s completely running our offense.”
Polk looked more like a veteran than a novice in her first season as a starter in 2024, running Parkview’s 5-1 offense with composure.
“I was comfortable,” she said. “I trusted myself. There was a lot of pressure, and I was trying to do the best that I could. I felt like I had a lot of control and moved the ball around to where I wanted it to go. I think I did alright. I had a lot outside of volleyball going on. Volleyball’s kind of my escape from all of that. To be able to really focus in and be ready to play.”
Parkview caught fire after a 9-6 record through Sept. 27. The Lady Eagles reeled off 13 straight wins, including the District 5-III championship with a five-set win at St. Michael the Archangel, and won 16 of their final 17 matches of the regular season.
Parkview advanced to the state semifinals with a quarterfinal sweep of St. Michael until a 3-2 loss to No. 1 Archbishop Hannan.
Polk was named to the Baton Rouge Advocate’s All-Metro and All-District 5-III first team with 729 assists, 185 digs, 60 kills, 28 blocks, and 33 service aces.
“We knew one day she’d be able to run the court, and she’s exceeded those expectations,” Leake said. “When you see a player at a young age, you can see how coachable they are. You can see their work ethic, you can see if you can fix things.
“To pick up setting as a freshman, sophomore, and junior, that’s extremely hard to do and be able to learn the game,” Leake said. “You can’t have a kid setting just because they have good hands. There’s a lot more that goes into it.”
The graduation of a talented senior class – especially with Cassidy signing with LSU – created a void for this year’s six-member senior class, led by Polk.
“We’ve got a good group of seniors this year, and they’ve all taken on the pieces that make a good leader,” Leake said of senior starters Polk, Kennedy, Otwell, Jana Thymes, and Emily Thompson. “That’s kind of what makes this group special. It’s not one bearing all of the weight, but Aadyn’s played a big piece in the leading.
“Off the court, they’ve really formed a tight bond because they’ve been playing together on the varsity court for the past three years,” Leake said. “They all have the same expectations. The culture of our program has come from the culture of the team, the culture of these seniors. They know the expectations, they know what I expect, they know what the program expects, and that comes from the seniors in front of them as well. They’ve done a phenomenal job.”
Another productive summer of club volleyball was another example of Polk’s next-level potential.
With an eye of leaving her hometown to attend college, she dispersed emails to coaches – preferably on the Division II level. One such school was Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina.
Polk was at a low moment this summer after her club team’s exit from the gold (highest level) national tournament. Upon her departure from the playing facility, she noticed coaches from Lees-McRae entering the building, believing her opportunity with the school had passed.
She later received an email from those same coaches inviting her to their camp on July 26-27. The experience resulted in a scholarship offer, and after three days of considering her future, she accepted an offer to the school.
Polk will sign with Lee’s-McRae in Parkview Baptist’s gymnasium at 2 p.m. on Dec. 3.
“I was emotional because we had just lost,” Polk said. “I thought I had lost my chance with that school, and then they invited me to camp. I had gone on another visit to Blinn (Texas) College, also picked up an offer from Loyola (New Orleans). It wanted to go out of state. I just wanted to explore those opportunities. The girls and coaches (at Lees-McRae) were really awesome. It’s a complete 180 from what I’m doing here. It’s new opportunities.”
Polk said the relief of arriving at her college decision before the start of her senior season was palpable.
“I can’t imagine having to focus on recruiting now,” she said. “Being able to check with that coach now and then, sending her (head coach Lauren Havill) stuff has been good. I have a whole different set of eyes from them. It let me play and focus on this school.”
Polk found herself trying to fill the same void for her teammates that Cassidy had filled for her. A veteran presence that could put a younger, less experienced player at ease with a reassuring word was something she wanted to provide for this year’s team.
“I would always go up to her, and she always knew the right words to give to me,” she said. “This year I’ve kind of tried to fill in where she was, like for me, being that person for the girls on the team. I’m a lot more vocal this year than I was last year. In my mind, it’s all about the people I’m playing with. I can always worry about myself after the game, but I’m trying to get everyone else on the same page. It was REAL now. There was no backing down.”
Parkview was slow to get its season underway and was 8-7 through its first 15 matches.
It wasn’t time to panic, Polk said.
“I knew that we would be fine,” she said. “It definitely took a lot of work to get to where we are now. We did have to call two or three meetings. One with just the seniors and coach Allison, and one with the whole team without coach Allison. That’s where everything flipped. We were able to say, ‘What do we want from this season? What do we need to do? What do we need from Coach Allison?’ From there, the whole team’s gotten so much better.”
Parkview won five straight matches, and following an Oct. 4 loss to defending Division III state champion Haynes Academy, the Lady Eagles put together a 13-match winning streak with a five-set victory at No. 1 St. Michael for the district championship on Oct. 23.
That stretch of success was more impressive when you take into account Parkview’s level of competition, which featured wins over Mt. Carmel and Fontainebleau (Division I), Sam Houston and Teurlings Catholic (Division II), and Catholic-New Iberia (Division III) that all qualified for the state tournament.
The only setback in that stretch was a 2-1 loss to Westminster Christian of Opelousas (Division V), which also advanced to the state tournament.
The Lady Eagles are facing E.D. White for the second time this season, a team that they had to dig deep against for a five-set victory on Oct. 9.
“I think we’ve realized that it’s almost over,” Polk said. “I’ve never been on a team this close. We just love each other. We’ve played together, and now this is the last of it. I think it has really helped us, realizing that we’ve got to play because this is our last time playing together.”
Polk, a member of the AVCA All-American Watchlist, has increased her production with room for more. Her 1,027 assists are a testament to her growth, along with 177 digs, 94 kills, and 36 blocks.
Leake said the leap in Polk’s game over a year ago from a cerebral standpoint has been obvious. They no longer have to engage in conversations over the distribution of the ball, which players and which spots on the floor, depending on the score or success ratio of previous sets.
“It gets to the point where a kid, especially a setter, is almost like another coach,” Leake said. “They can tell you the feeling on the court. As a coach, it’s hard to see everything. Her knowledge of the game allows me to focus more on our serve receive and our defense, and helping our hitters hit to spots and let them know what’s open.”
Leake said Polk’s true worth has been evident with matches on the line. Quite often, with an opportunity to close out an opponent, the Lady Eagles have had Polk at the service line.
“We’ve had really tight matches with big-name teams and she’s our server on the end line at game point and she’s serving aggressively,” Leake said. “That competitiveness, that’s what takes you to the next level. Some of its luck when you’re going point for point near the end, but you can’t play scared.
“She’s not scared to set the ball wherever it’s at to the players we need it to go,” Leake said. “She knows her job, and she knows what she needs to do. That’s one of the things I’ll remember most about Aadyn. … crunch time. There seems to have been a lot of matches where she’s serving the game point, and a lot of times she’s served an ace.”