Spring break for Polk County athletes is coming to an end, which means it’s time for the rush to the end of the regular season to resume.
When classes resume Monday in Polk County, high school and middle school teams will have just 2-3 weeks of regular season play remaining before the start of postseason action as the 2025-26 athletic season nears its end.
Polk County High baseball, softball, girls soccer and boys tennis teams will advance to playoff competition based on their RPI rating. As a reminder:
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- In most team sports, 48 schools will qualify for the playoffs. Qualification will be determined solely by the MaxPreps RPI rating used by the NCHSAA. Note that this is not the rating on MaxPreps’ website, but the rankings on nchsaa.org. There is a diference, and you cannot use the numbers on maxpreps.com to get accurate ratings.
- Once the 48 qualifiers are known, they’ll be divided into 24 schools each in the East and West brackets. Where a school falls is not predetermined as in recent years – the 24 westernmost schools based on longitude will be in the West, with the rest in the East.
- Once the 24 schools are in each bracket, they’ll be ranked 1-24 and that will determine byes and pairings. The top eight schools in each bracket will receive a first-round bye.
Here is a look at where schools in those four sports currently sit heading into Monday. These are not projected pairings and will change daily as the postseason approaches.
BASEBALL
Polk County currently sits 22nd in the state 3A RPI ratings. The Wolverines are 10th in the 3A West field, which means they would open the playoffs at home against 23rd-seeded West Caldwell.
Polk County would then travel to No. 7 Walkertown for a second-round game.
Just as importantly, the Wolverines currently sit atop the Western Highlands Conference standings. With four games remaining, Polk clinches at least a share of the conference title with two wins no matter what the rest of the conference does.
Polk’s strength of schedule will definitely get a boost with upcoming non-conference games against East Rutherford and Burns.
SOFTBALL
A young Polk County squad has experienced a challenging season to date. All is not lost.
The winless Wolverines have six games remaining, but those six are against teams with a combined record of 2-32. That’s not going to help Polk County’s strength of schedule, but wins in four of those might be enough to get Polk County into the top 48 teams in 3A. Polk would be 47th at present with four wins rather than in 58th overall.
A turnaround in the final three weeks would be a nice reward for a Polk County team that has been on the cusp of winning a handful of games.
GIRLS SOCCER
Polk County sits sixth overall in state 3A RPI, which is good enough to place the Wolverines fourth at present in the 3A West ratings.
A fourth seed would give Polk a first-round bye, then a home game against the winner of the 13-23 match. That would be Mount Airy (23) at Mountain Heritage (13) as of now.
A four seed is good for at least two home matches.
Polk also currently holds a half-game lead over Hendersonville in the WHC standings. The Wolverines have a key conference match on Tuesday at home against Owen, a team the Wolverines tied earlier this season.
BOYS TENNIS
Polk County is playing just nine matches this spring, so every result is key. The Wolverines currently sit 3-3.
With just 43 3A schools fielding boys tennis this spring, Polk County is guaranteed a dual team playoff berth. How the teams will be divided into East/West is a bit unclear, but East Davidson, currently the middle school in the geographic sort, played in the 3A West bracket in the girls tennis playoffs, so let’s assume that will be the case for the boys bracket.
Given that, Polk County currently sits seventh in the 3A West rankings. That would earn the Wolverines a first-round bye, then a second-round home match against the 10 seed, at present that being East Davidson. In this scenario, 22 teams are in the West bracket and 21 are in the East.
With just six games at present, Polk’s ratinng will likely fluctuate a good bit in its final three games.
