During her senior season, Kalynn Henke recorded team highs in service aces (22) and serves received (262). She also recorded 149 digs.
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During her days playing volleyball, Kalynn Henke has learned a lot in a short time.
Even though she picked up volleyball as an eighth-grader, Henke aims to continue playing the sport after she graduates from Warrenton.
On April 28, Henke signed her official National Letter of Intent (NLI) to play volleyball at William Woods University.
“I’m very excited to continue playing at a very high level,” Henke said. “I really like the coach there, and I think he’s a really good coach. The program he’s got set up is really nice. The girls on the team are great and the campus seems amazing.”
During her senior season, Henke recorded team highs in service aces (22) and serves received (262). She also recorded 149 digs.
Warrenton Coach Kayla Nelson said that Henke’s steady, albeit quiet, approach benefited the team greatly, as it has for four years now.
“She was one of my first four-year people, so I've had her since she was a freshman, and she is quiet, but she can be deadly,” Nelson said. “She's a great asset to a team and on the floor, she's got a great IQ. The game, she really can see it from different angles, and she knows how to take her strengths and apply them to the game, or take her team's weaknesses and try to minimize them. She just loves the sport, and you can tell.”]
Henke, a 5-foot-3 libero, said she plans to go into elementary education with a goal in mind, away from the classroom.
She aims to give back to the game she loves on the volleyball court, she said.
“I really do want to go on and coach,” Henke said. “I love volleyball and it gave me the opportunity to make so many friends. I’ve worked hard and it (the game) has given me the chance to play at a higher level. That’s amazing.”
While she knows she wants to work on a few things to improve her game at the collegiate level, Henke said.
In the future, the mental aspect of the game is just as important as the physical one, she said.
“I need to work on not being in my head so much and just being in a better mental state when I'm playing,” Henke said. “I get so upset when I'm on the court and (I need to work on) trying to keep it more to myself, and then also think that I need to work on conditioning more and just getting stronger.”
Henke said that, even though she's off to Fulton, Mo., to continue playing and begin studying to be a teacher, she’s excited that she won’t be alone.
After all, a close friend of hers also recently signed with William Woods.
“Zoe Duncan is going there to play basketball,” said Henke of her fellow Warrenton classmate. “It will be great to have a friend there. I look forward to making a lot of new friends, but it will definitely help to have someone I already know there with me.”
