STARKVILLE — Rebecca Myles could have used the first two months of the 2010-11 school year to prepare for the girls basketball season.
But the Starkville High School student-athlete wanted her senior year to be special. She wanted to branch out and try new things so she could “go out with a bang.” That”s why she decided to say yes to volleyball.
On Tuesday, Myles and classmates Tierra Tillman and Jondia Witherspoon celebrated their decisions to play volleyball in a Senior Night ceremony that preceded a 3-0 victory against Columbus.
Game scores were 25-11, 25-7, 25-7.
Wheeler and McKay Richardson each had four kills, while Myles added three to lead a balanced attack that helped the Yellow Jackets finish the regular season 20-9. They will turn next to a match against DeSoto Central at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Division III, Region 2 playoffs.
The contributions of Myles, Tillman and Witherspoon, who are in their first season with the varsity team, have helped coach Lauren Love continue to build the program.
“It has been mind-boggling,” Myles said. “I have learned things every day at practice, and sometimes I wish I would have started (playing volleyball) sooner.”
Myles thought volleyball was going to be easy compared to basketball. Once she got out on the court, though, she realized the sport was tougher than she imagined. But she said volleyball is a fun sport she has learned to love this year.
“I don”t regret my decision (to play volleyball),” Myles said. “I was bold enough to come out and try out, and I love I am here now with my teammates.”
In her second season, Love, a former women”s volleyball player at the University of Tennessee, continues to push Starkville to a higher level so it will be able to match the skills of programs like Tupelo and the other top programs in the state. She said the decisions of Myles, Tillman, and Witherspoon to play volleyball this season paid dividends for everyone.
“I think we made tremendous progress this year,” Love said. “We had a number of new players come on to varsity. The difference they have made has been huge, and the ladies who played varsity last year worked hard in the offseason playing club, and it really has made a difference. That kind of commitment is what is going to continue to build our program.”
Love credited the commitment of her players” parents, who provide the means for seven of the varsity team members to play club ball. Without a middle school program, Love said the year-round play is crucial to developing a program.
She also said the positive feedback Myles, Tillman, and Witherspoon give their friends will help encourage other players who haven”t played volleyball to try to sport.
Myles said she has done that to help the volleyball team grow.
“I see people and see they have athleticism and I tell them you should try it,” Myles said. “It is not as hard. I was new at it and I loved it.”
Like Love, Columbus coach Shay Ashford will try to build a volleyball program at Columbus High. The Lady Falcons concluded Ashford”s second season at the school with a three-win season. Their effort Tuesday night showed flashes of potential, but Ashford said the program will be in a perpetual rebuilding phase unless she can find a way to get the players to make a bigger commitment to volleyball. The primary problem, she said, is volleyball players at Columbus High don”t play club volleyball and they don”t play the sport year-round.
“I want all of them to play cub and to go to camp,” Ashford said. “That is the difference between us and everybody else.”
Tupelo is regarded as a hotbed for club volleyball in this area of the state, but Ashford admitted not all of the student-athletes have their own cars and all of the families don”t have the means to travel an hour away for a volleyball club.
As a result, Ashford has to rely on camps like the one former Mississippi State volleyball coach Tina Seals held at Columbus High to provide additional instruction on the finer points of the game. Ashford said it will take more events like that one for Columbus High to take advantage of the potential it has on the volleyball court.
“This year we”re going to do it. We”re going to find some way to (send them to camp and to club) because we don”t have a program if my girls can”t play all year,” Ashford said. “It is like starting over every year.”
As frustrating as it has been for Ashford, who was a volleyball and basketball standout at Tupelo High, to try to build something at Columbus, she said she won”t give up. She will continue to stress to her players they have what it takes and they have to do it.
“That is the hardest thing, to get them to believe in themselves,” said Ashford, who will lose seven seniors to graduation. “We have a great group of girls. We have to keep working at it.”
Myles and the Yellow Jackets will do just that this week in preparation for DeSoto Central. Love admitted she didn”t know anything about her next opponent, but Myles said the team”s ability to play together will carry it greater heights this weekend.
“I have seen we can push through when it seems like we can”t go on and stick together and have everyone”s back,” Myles said. “I think we can bring that down to DeSoto Central.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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