THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

By Jerry Hill
BaylorBears.com

"Welcome to the podium, new Big 12 Conference Commissioner Mariah Polk."

That may or may not be the future for Polk, a senior base/tumbler for the nine-time defending NCATA champion Baylor acrobatics & tumbling team. But as Assistant AD for Character Formation Christal Peterson put it: "The world is literally her oyster."

"I truly believe that Mariah will have a big imprint," Peterson said. "Her name will be one that we hear often throughout different departments. That's what's going to happen for her, not only from just a student-athlete perspective, but more so from an admin, because of just how knowledgeable she is, and she's willing to ask questions and advocate when she needs to, when she has the proper information."

Some of it, obviously, is her opening the doors herself. But the fifth-year senior from Dallas, Ga., has definitely had some doors open for her, the latest being a one-year internship with the NCAA National Office within the Legislation and Governance unit that will start June 16 in Indianapolis.

Already thinking a step or two ahead, Mariah said she has talked to people who work in the NCAA Office "who were just pulled in from their internship program."

"And that specific department is down a couple of people," she said, "so I'm hoping that they'll just pull me right in when my internship ends next June."

Peterson said she "wouldn't be surprised if that happens to (Mariah) after her time there, because why would you want to get rid of good talent, especially at the national level?"

"She's amazing," Peterson said. "That's what you call a student-athlete."

Even as a four-time NCATA national champion, Mariah's greatest accomplishments have actually come off the mat.

On pace to graduate in May with a degree in health, kinesiology and leisure studies, she is in her third year serving on Baylor's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and second year on the executive board as Vice President and chair of the Golden Bruisers Awards Committee.

"That last month is going to be crazy," Mariah said of a busy schedule that includes the Golden Bruisers Awards Show on May 5, graduation on May 17 and then getting ready to move to Indianapolis.

"It's been bittersweet. I hadn't really sat and thought about how sports is ending for me and that, honestly, is something to grieve. That's something I grew up doing my whole life. You wake up, you eat, you go to school, you go to practice, you eat, and you do it all over again the next day. It's definitely bittersweet, but more exciting than sad I think, just because I feel content with what I've done here."

Coming from a cheer and gymnastics background, Mariah began gymnastics when she was 9 years old, training in acrobatics and tumbling at the Atlanta School of Gymnastics. She switched back to cheer for her last two years at Harrison High School but also had randomly sent in a questionnaire to Baylor's acrobatics and tumbling program headed by coach Felecia Mulkey.

"I sent it in and never thought about it again. Honestly, I forgot I even did it," she said. "And then my junior year, once you could start your recruiting process, I got an email from one of Coach Fee's assistant coaches. That's when I started doing all my research, looking into it, and found out that Baylor was one of the top programs."

Initially interested in the pre-med program, Mariah said she was "locked in" when she discovered Baylor also had the A&T program.

"Baylor is the only acro school that I looked at, and I'm grateful for that," she said. "I was either going to Baylor for both, or I was just going to be a regular student somewhere else."

Coach Fee said Mariah's background in cheer and gymnastics "made her a perfect candidate for our team."

"When I went to her gym to watch her train, her work ethic, her interactions with the people around her in the gym stood out to me," Mulkey said, "because those types of things, that work ethic, that ability to work with people around you, that stands out to me more than talent ever does when I'm recruiting. And she was also talented."

Baylor A&T's first mid-year enrollee in January 2021, Mariah has "grown up through the sport, in my own way."

"Because I came in mid-year, I've seen five different versions of the team," said Polk, primarily a base in 36-consecutive meets over the last three-plus seasons. "Not only have we become mentally strong – I've watched the team grow and change the culture, the dynamic and things like that – but just physically, the physicality that we have, the standard we have set, is through the roof.

"Sometimes, I will be in my own brain at practice, and I'm like, 'Wow, we lift people over our head!' And when I got here, that was very rare. Like, there were one or two people on the team that could do that. Now, the whole team can do it. And now that we have our own facility, we're also outsmarting everybody else in the world, and they don't even know it yet."

Becoming a "voice for student-athletes that feel voiceless in a space that's constantly changing" since first getting involved with Baylor's SAC as a sophomore in 2022-23, Mariah said she "felt this tug to need to be in sports," switching her major from pre-med to pre-physician assistant and finally HKLS last spring.

"I was sitting in my car last spring, trying to make my schedule for the upcoming year, and I was bawling my eyes out talking to my mom on the phone," she said. "I was just thinking about the way it was coming to a close, and I've been in for 20 years now. And I was like, 'Mom, I'm not ready to give up sports.' I had also worked with football in recruiting and operations, and I felt like, 'This is my thing.'''

That was when her mom, Marranda Edwards, gave her some wise advice: "Why does sports have to end for you? Maybe you're not the athlete, maybe you're the one serving student-athletes."

It was that light-bulb moment that made Mariah think about a career path that could include a master's degree in sports law or "potentially law school." She has a specific interest in Compliance and Governance and Regulations.

As one of Baylor's representatives for the Big 12 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Mariah served as the co-chair last year and was elected the chair for 2024-25, being able to go to Big 12 meetings with athletic directors and presidents of the league's 16 institutions.

"Just different opportunities like that have been super unique," Mariah said. "They're sending me to a conference in May, post-graduation, and I'll speak there on behalf of student-athletes for the Big 12. And then, we're also looking at something they have going on in Capitol Hill in April. Hopefully, that will align with my schedule. I think any opportunity is great. It's just opened doors to put me in the spaces that I need to be in for where I want to go."

While her career as a student-athlete will end at the NCATA National Championships April 24-27 in Sioux Falls, S.D., Mariah's swan song with Baylor SAC will be the Black and White Gala-themed Golden Bruisers Awards Show on May 5 at the Hurd Welcome Center.

"I might cry at this Golden Bruisers," she said. "I have done Golden Bruiser Committee since I've been on SAC, and I've been the chair of it for the past two years. So, that is like my baby. I literally watched the ideas from my notebook go to a floor plan and that goes to the day of the show, and we're running through the script and things like that.

"Not only am I trying to make it special for all of our student-athletes, but especially for those seniors that will be leaving, because I feel like that's the one thing we've been missing these past few years, is not giving the seniors enough credit."

And then, following graduation, it's on to Indianapolis and her next steps with the NCAA Office.

"The big goal, like shooting for the stars, if I could pick my job for the rest of my life," Mariah said, "it would definitely be to be an athletic director at a Power 4 school, just making change and being what the student-athletes need me to be."

Peterson said, "I hope I work for her someday. I might need to put my resume in now. Tell Mariah that I'll be her Chief of Staff."

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

Players Mentioned

Mariah Polk

Footer

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

Players Mentioned

Mariah Polk

Related Videos

Promotional Background Photo

Footer