STARKVILLE — Basketball teams can win with eight players.
Rarely can a team remain competitive through a season with eight players on its roster.
Starkville Academy”s girls basketball team did just that this season, finishing 19-14 after losing three senior starters from the previous season.
The Lady Volunteers didn”t have a senior on the roster this season, and started two freshman forwards and a sophomore transfer who”d never played a minute in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools ranks.
Normally, that formula would mean a rebuilding season.
“Sure, there was a little bit of doubt,” Starkville Academy junior point guard Anna Prestridge said. “At first, people thought, ”Y”all only have eight people and you”re not going to have a great bench if y”all get tired.” But toward the middle of the season, we thought, ”Eight is great. That”s all we need.” ”
Clearing the doubt from the players” minds was coach Glenn Schmidt”s initial concern. Her young players shined in the local summer league schedule against public school competition, so she wasn”t as concerned with freshman post players Nora Kathryn Carroll and Sallie Kate Richardson acclimating to starting roles.
The 2010-11 Dispatch Large Schools Coach of the Year knew that with young players, outside influences and opinions could affect their perceptions about how good they could be.
“Everyone tells your team how they”re gonna do,” Schmidt said. “They”re telling me how they”re gonna do right now, and it”s only June. One of your biggest fears is who will they believe? I was thinking, ”My gosh, people have convinced them they won”t win with eight people.” We started doing a little propaganda work, asking them questions about what they felt. Gradually, they got a lot more comfortable together.”
On the court, Schmidt had reason for concern after Starkville Academy opened the season with losses to Madison-Ridgeland Academy and Heritage Academy. The loss to MRA was by 22 points, while Heritage Academy beat Starkville Academy without Dispatch All-Area first-team center and national recruit Rachel Hollivay.
“That really scared me to death, and I wasn”t really sure how we”d respond after that,” Schmidt said. “We had a new player, Anna Lea Little, who hadn”t played in our league before. I thought, ”We are not anywhere near where we need to be.” My first reaction was ”Oh, my, we might not have worked on the right things.”
“But when we stepped back, played our next game against Lamar, we looked like a different team. I think it was just a jittery situation.”
The growing pains continued, though, as the Lady Vols were a game under .500 and 1-3 in league play halfway through the season.
Then, a three-overtime loss to 6A public school Southaven at the Magnolia Heights Christmas Tournament changed the season.
Southaven was a favorite to reach the 6A state tournament and finished 19-5.
“I think when you beat a big school or a private school, and then a big one at that, it lets you know you”re pretty good,” Schmidt said. “You know, as a player, who you”ve played against. You know when you got to turn it up a notch. They just knew what they”d done. I think it brought them together. We had a different level of toughness in our play after that.”
Starkville Academy closed the Magnolia Heights tournament with a 2-1 record, which started a 7-2 run that included wins against Washington School, Oak Hill Academy, and Pillow Academy.
The biggest win of the stretch came against top-ranked MAIS team MRA, which routed the Lady Volunteers in the season opener.
At home, and without Little, who was battling illness, Starkville Academy posted a 49-43 win behind Richardson”s 17 points and 12 rebounds.
“It was one of those near-perfect games,” Schmidt said.
The 2010-11 season showed Schmidt has burgeoning standouts in Richardson and Carroll. But the three bench players, Lauren Atwell, Brittany Jacks and April Burney, despite averaging just 4.4 points between them, played pivotal roles.
Each played at least 13 minutes a game, but their impact came in their attitude and selflessness, Schmidt said.
“Everybody”s dream is to start,” Schmidt said. “Every parent”s dream is for their child to start. Even your boyfriend wants you to start. That”s where it all is. And to have three juniors on the bench that didn”t start and gave what they gave, there”s not a lot of way to describe what that means to a team.
“I hope the intangibles we gained from that are gonna carry us a long way next year.”
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