Coming into this season, not many people would’ve thought Starkville Academy’s girls basketball team would be gearing up to play Hartfield Academy on Friday for the No. 2 seed in District 2-4A.
The team only had one returning starter coming back, Kate Couvillion, and its head coach, Robin Chastain, left for the same job at Magnolia Heights during the summer. That left boys head coach Mark Alexander in charge of leading both teams for this season.
“We lost everything, basically,” Alexander said.
The Vols started the season against a slate of “really good teams,” like Pillow Academy, Jackson Academy and Leake Academy and at one point lost six straight games. The early season loss of Couvillion to an injury wasn’t helping much either.
But then, the Vols flipped the script.
The squad rattled off five straight wins to churn up some momentum to take into District 2-4A play where it continued to do damage, beating rival Heritage Academy twice and earning a win over Hartfield. Now the Vols stand at 11-12 overall with a 5-2 mark in conference games and have just one important game left to play against the Hawks. A win would give the Vols a No. 2 spot in next week’s North 4A Tournament and they are gunning for it.
“I think most people thought we’d win two, three or four games and here we are,” said Alexander, who also coaches both of the school’s junior varsity teams. “That’s just a tribute to the girls.”
It also helps to have Couvillion back on the court for the important stretch. She leads the team in scoring and averages 18 points and eight rebounds per game.
“She’s had a couple of 30-point games, she’s had like five or six 20-point games,” Alexander told The Dispatch. “She’s our best player and everybody knows it and she’s still been able to score. That’s pretty impressive. She’s had a really good year.”
But Couvillion isn’t the only one doing the heavy lifting. Alexander pointed to the team’s 60-37 win over Heritage Academy on Tuesday as game where everyone chipped in.
“I think that’s what it’ll take; everybody kind of playing their role and doing their role,” he said.
The boys team was in a similar boat to start the season. They lost all five of their starters from last season and even had to wait on some players to get healthy from football season before they could take to the court. But none of that has slowed them down as they found victories over every district foe so far, except for Heritage, who beat them twice.
Like the girls’ team, the Vols’ boys (11-8, 5-2) are set to take on Hartfield for better seeding in the upcoming North 4A Tournament. It’s all about being consistent for the Vols, who have struggled at times due to their youth and inexperience, Alexander said, but they’ve shown some bright moments. One such moment was a 61-54 win over the Hawks two weeks ago.
“It’s just one of those things. I knew we would be up-and-down and inconsistent because of our youth and stuff, but it’s been even moreso than I thought,” he said. “If we play and show up, we can be pretty good and the Hartfield game shows that. … The two games we played against Heritage, they beat us by 20-something points both times and when you look at when they played Hartfield, Hartfield beat them that bad. Sometimes it’s about matchups, styles make fights, and I just think we match up with Hartfield personnel-wise more than we do against Heritage.”
Coaching both varsity basketball teams and both junior varsity teams has been a challenge for Alexander, who said he spends most of his free time watching film and making preparations for practices, which are slotted at the same time for both teams. That means they’ve been sharing the court at practice and even doing the same drills together.
“I do think it has made the boys’ team and the girls’ team closer,” he said. “I think they really pull for each other more. It’s been fine. I think we’ve made the best out of the situation, I feel like, and moving forward the plans are to hire a girls’ coach for next year and I’ll just return and do boys only. That’s the plan at least.”
The odds will again be stacked against both teams once more in their challenge to knock off the Hawks again, but it’s a task the Vols are looking forward to.
“It will be tough by going to Hartfield, going down there and then having the revenge factor with everything on the line,” Alexander said. “But look, we’re going to show up and play.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
