Returning senior captain Clare Robinson will be counted on to lead a young Free State squad.

It will be a youth-filled year for the Free State and Lawrence High soccer squads, with most of the probable starters being underclassmen.

In Seabury Academy’s case, there will be athletes new to soccer in general.

“Coaches generally don’t like to hear two phrases in coaching: One is the dreaded ‘vote of confidence,’ and the other one is ‘a rebuilding year,'” Seabury coach Gunar Harmon said. “While the former doesn’t apply, the second does. We graduated seven players last year, one didn’t return, and despite having more numbers than last year, I’ll be starting four players that have never played the game before or haven’t played since (Bill) Clinton left office.”

Of Harmon’s 15 players, nine are new members, with two juniors – Leah Tomassian and Ye-Gi Moon – and sophomore Dana Sohn. There will be six freshmen: Katie Smith, Alina Stout, Preethi Singh, Soo Hyun Kang, Lara Thompson and Jamie Fischer.

“I have only one returning senior (Liz Hughes) and a returning sophomore for a captain, Melissa Burch,” Harmon said. “They’ve been very positive, very encouraging – they had to recruit many of them just to flesh out the roster quite a bit. And for that, I am very grateful.”

Free State coach Jason Pendleton also has six incoming freshman, but with some experience at the club level.

Pendleton projects freshmen Hannah Carlson, Grace Lange and Mckenzie Liebl will serve as starters, with Ainsley Burke, Apryl Hedges and Carlin Francis coming off the bench.

“I think our returning players recognize : and feel pretty comfortable with the fact that these kids are good, and they give us a better opportunity to be successful,” Pendleton said of the team’s attitude toward the freshmen. “That’s ultimately what I think any of them want to do – be successful. : So in that light, I think they’re very comfortable with the freshmen. At least that’s my impression and hope I’m right.”

But Pendleton is still looking at some strong returning players, including two all-state defenders: junior Leah Williams, a first-team all-stater, and senior Clare Robinson, a member of the second team and a returning team captain.

The defenders will be helping Megan Hrenchir, a four-year starting goalkeeper.

Seniors Jenni Brooks, a three-year starter, and Amanda Vervynck, a two-year starter, will team up with junior Logan Keasling, who spent her sophomore season attempting to recover from ACL surgery.

“Some encouraging stuff for me is that I think this is a team that is going to be playing its best soccer at the end of the year because we are probably going to be starting three or four freshman,” Pendleton said about a girls program that never has won a postseason game in its nine years. “So as a result of that, as they gain more experience and get more used to my expectations and things of that nature, I think by the time we get to the postseason, we’ll be playing better, and hopefully that will translate into an opportunity to be successful in the postseason.”

LHS returns eight starters, but just one senior: Abby Vestal.

“We have a lot of, I guess you could call it young experience coming back,” Lawrence coach Matt Anderson said. “A lot of them play club, so they’re getting an extra 20 or 30 games with clubs : so I count that.”

Anderson also has three returning junior starters in Madison Bertrand, Kathleen Hermesch and Kaela Severa, with another junior, Alyson Lunte, expecting to get a starting spot this year.

Emma Lumpe was the Lions’ goalkeeper last year as a freshman and will be back in the net for her sophomore year. Fellow sophomores Megan Andrews, Stef Stuever and Heather Miller also were starters a year ago and will have freshmen Kaley Tesdahl and Olivia Dykes starting alongside them – with Dykes serving as the center.

“The chemistry of this team, and especially for this early in the season, is phenomenal,” Anderson said. “They’re all rooting for each other, they really want for each other to succeed, (and) they challenge each other.”