Crofton House duo looking to net final title
Inseparable volleyball stars closing in on end of successful high school careers
Shea Baker and Jadyn van Santen are joined at the set and the spike.
The pair met when they were trying out for a club volleyball team five years ago. They became fast friends and frequent teammates, playing club, high school, provincial and even a little beach volleyball together along the way.
It’s been a successful tandem. Last year, for instance, setter Baker and outside hitter van Santen helped Vancouver’s Crofton House Falcons win the triple-A high school ranks, the Vancouver Thunder claim the Under-17 club provincial banner, and the Team B.C. Under-18 Selects capture the Canada Cup title.
They will play apart for the school season next year, though, with Baker heading to the Queen’s University Gaels in Ontario and van Santen slated to join the St. Mary’s College Gaels, an NCAA program in Moraga, Calif.
Yes, at least they’ll both be Gaels.
“I’m not worried. I think we’re going to talk all the time. We will FaceTime a lot,” explained the six-foot van Santen, 17. “I’ll follow her team on Instagram, she’ll follow mine. We’ll livestream each other’s games. We’ll pretend like we’re not apart.”
They’re so close and so connected their mothers have become buddies.
“I come home and my mom is always on the phone with Leslie (van Santen’s mom), talking about volleyball,” joked Baker, 17, of her mom Sandy.
That brings us to the matter of this Grade 12 season for the pair at Crofton House. With Baker and van Santen leading the way, Crofton House is the No. 1 team in the provincial rankings. The Vancouver rival Little Flower Academy Angels are No. 2.
This year’s triple-A provincials are being hosted by Brooks Secondary in Powell River, starting Nov. 28.
“I wouldn’t say it puts pressure on us, but every game we go through, it gets a little bit sadder, because this part of playing together is coming to an end soon,” said van Santen. “It’s not pressure. We both thrive off pressure. It’s more that we know it’s our last high school season and it’s kind of a milestone for us.”
Baker, who is 5-foot-10, added: “We have a lot of new girls this year. We’ve been working on our passing and working on just gelling as a team and pretty much everything is going as planned. I like where we are at.”
Van Santen tags Baker as “the most competitive person I know, and really inspiring, too.”
Baker says van Santen “brings a good court presence,” along with being “so dependable … you know she’s going to put that ball away.”
The pair will continue to play club volleyball together, they say. They have played sparingly in beach, using it as cross-training, according to Baker.