STARKVILLE — Wheeler Richardson was worried.

Entering her senior season, she realized a lot of the faces she saw on the Starkville High School volleyball team weren’t experienced. She recognized classmates Grace Drumheller and Margaret Allison and knew what they could do, but as for the others, well … let’s just say Richardson wasn’t sold.

“Coming into the season, I was really pessimistic about the year,” Richardson said. “I was like, ‘We’re not going to be any good,’ but changing my mind-set and realizing the players don’t have the experience but they are trying and working hard (helped her help them).”

Khristian Carr is just one of the new generation of Starkville High volleyball players who has benefited from the tutoring of Richardson and the seniors. That mix of “old” and “new” has been a key to success for Starkville, which will play host to Hernando at 1 p.m. today at Mississippi State’s Newell-Grissom Building in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2 tournament.

Starkville High coach Lauren Love praised her seniors for working with players like Carr, freshman Vicky Vo, and eighth-grader April Reese and integrating them into the “team concept.” Once the Yellow Jackets invested in that mind-set, things started to jell, as evidenced by their district championship run that earned them a home playoff match.

“Every practice, every practice, every set, they have really come together as a team,” Love said. “Every match they have gotten better.”

Richardson, The Dispatch’s 2010 Volleyball Player of the Year, has anchored the lineup at setter. As the team’s most experienced and accomplished player, Richardson said she has had to be patient with her younger teammates, but that it has been worth the wait. In fact, she said she was especially proud of her team’s sweep of Ridgeland on Tuesday, saying that victory was the first time this season the team came together.

Initially, Richardson didn’t think the team would get there. The victory against Ridgeland showed how far the team has come since the beginning of the season and how it now is able to recover quickly and avoid a second- or third-game slump.

“We are like April (Reese). You are not in eighth grade. You’re on the varsity team,” Richardson said. “We’re like Kris. You’re not in the ninth grade. You’re on the varsity team. It doesn’t matter I am a senior. We have the mind-set now we do everything as a team.”

Carr has been a key component on offense. The freshman arguably is the team’s best hitter, and while she has plenty of room to grow as a player, she didn’t let her inexperience slow her down. She also isn’t going to let where she plays stop her, either. Carr said her goal is to earn a Division I volleyball scholarship. She has national champion Penn State at the top of her list.

“It is all about having volleyball in your heart,” Carr said. “If you really want to get that far, all it takes is the athletic ability and believing in yourself.

“I am very passionate about volleyball. I want to go very far with volleyball.”

Love, who played volleyball at the University of Tennessee, said Carr has the potential to reach her goal. She said Carr id dedicated her the sport and has the drive and self confidence to make it happen.

Richardson agrees.

“She knows when she messes up and she will ask, ‘Wheeler, what am I doing?’ ” Richardson said. I will tell her and then she work on it. If she doesn’t get it, she will ask questions. That is what a lot of girls don’t do. They won’t ask questions. They don’t want to know how to improve. She is driven, and she wants to play volleyball at a Division I school. I think she is realizing as the season is coming to an end her mind-set is transitioning from freshman and inexperienced to team leader for next year. She is going to go far. I told her I am going to come back and the only reason is to see you play.”

Love hopes Starkville will go far, too. She has enjoyed a season of learning and growing with a team of players with different skill levels. She said Carr has handled the pressure of being a go-to player, while Richardson has emerged as a lead-by-example and a vocal leader.

Mix it all up and you have a team that is primed for the playoffs.

“Being mixed with older and younger girls has helped us improve and push ourselves to the limits,” Carr said.

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.