Building state championship volleyball teams and players at Addison is a tradition that has held steady for over 20 years.
Beginning with legendary Hall of Fame coach Pam Wilkins and continuing with current head coach Kaydi Woodard, the Addison Lady Bulldog volleyball team is the holder of 14 state championships and has made an appearance in every Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) State Tournament since 2002. It’s a dynasty that, outside of high school volleyball circles, has somewhat fallen under the radar, and though the Lady Bulldogs did not win a state title in the last two years, is one that is still worth review.
Wilkins took over the program in 2003 and promptly led the team to three straight 1A state titles from 2003-05. Later, she won championships in Class 2A in both 2009 and 2014. She holds the highest winning percentage (.934) of any high school volleyball coach in Alabama history and was selected to the Alabama High School Volleyball Coaches Association (AHSVCA) Hall of Fame this past summer.
Woodard, a former player under Wilkins from 2007-2009 and a three-time state championship coach, knew the Bulldogs’ history on the court when she was offered the job in 2020, as well as the pressure of maintaining the standards set by her mentor on and off the court. Since then, she has continued the winning tradition, posting a 207-55 overall record and topping at 48 wins during the 2021 season. She won three straight state titles from 2020-22.
Assistant Coach Sunny Snoddy, AnnaBeth Powell, Ava Bartlett, Brystil Moser, Calie Garrison, Head Coach Kaydi Woodard
(Front Row L-R) Kendall Wyatt, Mattie Johnson.
“When I was originally approached about coaching volleyball, I thought it had been at the middle school. Finding out it was for coaching the varsity high school program was a huge eye-opener,” Woodard said. “A new coach coming into a program has to take time to build its framework, have the players buy-in to watch you want to accomplish and find that all-important support in the community. I was incredibly blessed as those things have been present at Addison for many years.”
Woodard said she originally hadn’t planned on going into education, but after praying about being offered the job, she felt this is what God wanted her to do. Since then, she has had many opportunities to positively influence the lives of the young ladies at Addison. The girls have become an extension of her family and she holds great relationships with many who have graduated—”which is how you know you’ve made a difference in their lives, and you in theirs,” she says.
Woodard’s first season at the helm brought challenges that hadn’t been experienced by her predecessors: having to navigate athletics during the COVID-19 pandemic—an obstacle she found tough to contend with. “Your first year as a coach is always frenzied—from assembling scheduling to coordinating with officials, it’s a lot to deal with. Adding in the pandemic made it all so much more hectic,” Woodard said.
Two weeks into the new school year in 2020, the school went virtual and for many girls who thrived on the daily connections they had with friends and teammates, it added stressors no one had dealt with before. Masks and the constant quarantines shook things up as well, but what Woodard found during that time was that the girls desired the normalcy of playing. “Volleyball represented what they knew, and that kind of stability is what we all needed. That it ended up with a state championship just made it more special,” Woodard said.
The “secret sauce” for success, Woodard says, is this: there is no secret sauce. Rather, she says that constant, sometimes repetitive, hard work, every day, with no excuses is what the program is built on. She adds that the pressure to accomplish what the previous teams accomplished is a big part of what keeps the girls interested, but their inner desire to be champions keeps them going.
In developing leaders who will shape and mold tomorrow, Woodard doesn’t shirk from her high expectations for her players in their performances on game days, at practice, and in the classroom, and believes that overcoming challenges and adversity leads to success beyond their time on the team. “I will often hear from players that I want them to be perfect and come in every day and work very hard. It’s true—that’s what is going to be expected of them in college, their careers, as mothers, and as bosses,” Woodard said. “Half-effort is not giving anything—it’s a responsibility when they take over those roles later in life no differently than those they have as students and players.”
Woodard places a special emphasis on relationships throughout her program and life, from the bonds formed among her players and fellow coaches to the families that surround the team. Of great importance is her relationship with God, whom she turns to every day to help her lead.
“I can’t do it alone, neither can the girls or are we meant to. God wants us to lean on Him for support in tough times no different than we lean on teammates and family in tough times. A support system is so vitally important for young people— especially in the high school years where the first brushes of adulthood are weighing in on their daily lives,” Woodard said.
This past season, Addison (34-15) made it to the Class 1A semifinals but was knocked out by University Charter School (32-7) out of Livingston, Alabama. And though no trophies have been added to the trophy case in two years, Woodard assures the Lady Bulldogs are simply going to re-load for next season and make yet another run at a state title.
After all, dynasties—like the kind that has been built at Addison over the last two decades—may go dormant for a while, but they don’t die. TG
Addison won state volleyball titles in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Photos by Al Blanton
