Last August when Dallas County started volleyball practice, head coach Linda Moore had it made. Six seniors made up the Hornets’ starting lineup, so they already knew all the drills and the younger players usually caught on quick with so much experience leading the way.

“Last year, they basically ran the team themselves,” Moore said.

This year when practice opens on Aug. 4, things will be quite different as only three players return from last year’s varsity squad.

“We lost probably 90 to 95 percent of our team, but the young ladies that are coming back are working really hard and are looking forward to playing the game on the varsity level,” Moore said.

Moore will have ten players on her varsity roster and another ten on her junior varsity squad this season. She said although her teams lack experience, many of the girls learned from last year’s team and are prepared to become leaders.

“The three that played varsity last year learned from last year’s girls and they know what the expectations are,” Moore said. “We are just making sure we mesh together well.”

Taylor Moore, Tori Hatfield and Brittney Brown return for the Hornets, who open their season against Autaugaville Aug. 28. With Dallas County’s move to Class 5A, the Hornets will be in an area with Demopolis, Sumter Central and Wilcox Central — teams they know very little about.

“These teams are good teams, and we really don’t know much about them,” Moore said. “We played Demopolis last year, but we are kind of going into the unknown right now as far as area teams. We are just going to try to make sure we learn the basics and that we learn our drills in practice.”

The move to 5A is a big change in general, as it pits the Hornets against bigger schools than they were facing last year.

“It’s something new for us,” Moore said. “We were so used to being in 4A that we knew what to expect from the area teams we played in 4A. Now being a 5A team we have to step our game up and play 5A volleyball.”