Kinghorne has gone from what he described as being plucked out of obscurity by a teacher to fill in on the Blayney High School team - mainly because of his height, he said - to the state set-up over the school holidays.

He travelled with the NSW side to Canberra for the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships after receiving a late call-up to the squad, being pulled not just into a whole new world of competition but a whole new age group.

With not enough under-16 sides to make a competition, their bracket was merged with the under-17s'.

"I play with school and the difference between that and state is massive," Kinghorne said.

"I was trying a new position, and the competitiveness is completely different.

"School is social but a bit of a competition, whereas state is just all competition."

The NSW side, which finished fifth, was better equipped than their counterparts to make the grade.

"Since there were two NSW sides we'd trained a bit against the NSW under-17 side so we treated it a bit like that, they were just another NSW under-17 side but in a different uniform," Kinghorne said.

"We were a bit nervous in the first set but then we got our composure."

He said he "learned so much" from the experience and was desperate to get back next year as one of the first picked.

"I got called up late because someone pulled out so if I was going back I'd like to be one of the first picked instead of filling in," he said.

"I think I played well, didn't get a lot of game time early but that was good in a sense, I got the chance to sit and watch and get used to the pace so when I did come on I could sort of predict it."