STARKVILLE — Starkville High School girls basketball coach Kristie Williams claims she rarely feels pressure or nervousness.
However, this Saturday, all bets are off.
Williams admits she has been dreaming of this day for quite some time. In her 11th season as head coach at SHS, Kristie Williams will make her Mississippi Coliseum debut at 7:30 p.m. when her squad takes on Hattiesburg in the quarterfinal round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A State Tournament.
“I have to admit this is emotional for me,” Kristie Williams said. “As a coach in the State of Mississippi, this is where you want to go. You want to coach in these games. You want your players to play in these games. The emotions will be all over the map Saturday night. I trust these girls completely and I am glad we are in this together.”
Glenn Schmidt carried Starkville to a Class 5A high school girls basketball state championship in 1992. The Starkville boys have frequently appeared in Jackson the last two decades. The Lady Jackets make their return Saturday night.
“As a freshman, I really don’t know what to think,” Starkville freshman guard Jariyah Covington said. “It started during the summer. When we had workouts and we saw what all we had to work with. I just knew we could be a special team. Still, you never know if you can go to Jackson. I look at this way, either you dream big or you go home. Once, we got on this streak, we knew we could do it.”
Starkville will enter the contest on a 12-game winning streak. The Lady Jackets have played their best basketball when needing to the most. Starkville knocked off Madison Central and Columbus on its home floor to win the Class 6A, Region 3 tournament. Starkville thus earned a first-round bye and beat Clinton at home Saturday night to earn the trip to Jackson.
“This has been very exciting,” Starkville senior guard Daija Williams said. “A lot of people thought we wouldn’t make it this far. We worked hard. Really from the first game, I believed that would could do this. Eventually, others bought in. People started talking around school about the girls basketball team. That was exciting. We really worked hard. Nothing has been easy. I think we take a lot of pride in that.”
Starkville began the season trying to replace its two leading scorers from a season ago – Blair Schaefer and Imane Montgomery. That squad won 18 games but was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Clinton.
Slowly, things fell into place. Ironically, Williams found a comfort level with her squad from one of its four defeats. Harrison Central, which will also play Saturday in the quarterfinal round, beat Starkville 59-51 in the Travis Outlaw Slam Dunk at the Hump holiday tournament the day after Christmas.
“The Harrison Central game made me a believer,” Williams said. “We battled for four quarters with one of the elite teams in the state. Shortly after that game, I looked back on it and knew we were right there. We just had to do one or two things differently. Showing an ability to compete with the an elite team like that really made me believe. I think we worked a little harder after that.”
A year ago there was little doubt that Montgomery or Schaefer would be taking all of the team’s big shots. This season, the team needed an identity. Covington blossomed as a sharp-shooting freshman. Sophomore center Kelsey Jones quickly established herself as a one of the premier inside players in the state. Junior guard Eryka Williams provided an offensive compliment to Covington and helped move the inside-out game with Jones to a different level. Price and Daija Williams were asked to bring senior leadership to the table. That duo along with Alize’ Thompson are captains.
“The team really developed throughout the year,” Price said. “We played as a team. Last year, opponents could focus on two players. This year that is not the case. We are more of a team this year. We are all like sisters. People were doubting on us early on, but we aren’t going to back down. We practiced, developed and really grew from the first game of the season. We had some issues but we played through them.”
The early non-region schedule included head-scratching losses to Newton and Jim Hill. In both games, the Lady Jackets were dreadful from the free throw line. The only home loss this season was to a highly-touted Tupelo squad.
With a young team, Kristie Williams knew the importance of staying even-keel during the early struggles.
“The best thing about this team is they are never too high and never too low,” Kristie Williams said. “Sometimes, they are a hard bunch to read. That’s a good thing. They are fully invested in playing hard for four quarters. Any adversity they take it head-on. I think that is the trait of a special team. It is the type of makeup and chemistry you want from a team when you are trying to win a state championship.”
This season, the Starkville boys also return to Jackson for the first time since 2012. Greg Carter’s squad will also face Hattiesburg in a 10:30 a.m. start at Jackson State University. The success on the court has led to a strong bond off the court.
“It’s like a brother-sister thing,” Covington said. “We are there for each other. What we are doing is special. It takes a lot to get to this point but neither team is satisfied just yet.”
Follow Dispatch Sports Writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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