YARMOUTH — Brady Levesque has seen the look. Or rather, the overlook.

He hopes he sees it again Thursday when his Maine Seacoast United 16-and-under boys’ soccer team takes on the Gulf Coast Texans club to kick off the National Premier League finals in Westfield, Indiana.

Brady Levesque, who will be a senior at Cheverus High, says it would be a mistake for opponents to underestimate his team. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Kyle Townsend, an incoming senior at Hampden Academy, regularly travels from the Bangor area with three other players to practice and play with the team. Shawn Patrick Ouellette

NPL Finals

Maine’s Seacoast United and 13 other teams are at the 16-and-under National Premier League finals in Westfield, Indiana.

Thursday: Seacoast United vs. Gulf Coast Texans

Friday: Seacoast vs. Campton United

Saturday: Seacoast United vs. Sacramento United Reds

Sunday: Semifinals

Monday: Final

“I think every time we’ve gone to a big tournament,” Levesque said, “people are just like, ‘Oh cool, we drew the Maine team. Lucky us!’ ”

A senior this fall at Cheverus High, Levesque is one of the 21 boys on the Seacoast United team that finished among the top four in the New England National Premier League season and then, in a playoff, beat a Rhode Island team in the semifinals and, in double overtime, a team from Massachusetts for the championship.

“To my knowledge,” said Coach Scott Atherley, “this is the first time a Maine team has advanced out of its regional to the nationals.”

Atherley coached the University of Maine men’s soccer team for seven seasons until the sport was dropped. He coached the men’s and women’s teams in 1999 and has remained the UMaine women’s team coach.

His son, Carson, will be a junior at Bangor High and is one of the four boys who regularly travel to Greater Portland for practice – usually in Topsham or at North Yarmouth Academy.

“The Portland guys have been together about seven years and the Bangor guys were added within the last three or four years,” Atherley said. “The distinguishing thing about this is the National Premier League is considered the most competitive league outside of the U.S. Developmental Program.”

Besides the Texans (who are actually based in Pensacola, Florida), the other teams in Seacoast United’s pool at the 14-team finals are from Illinois and California. Maine plays Illinois on Friday and Sacramento on Saturday. The winners from each group of four advance to the Sunday semifinals with a championship match Monday.

Seacoast United, a club team whose members pay to participate, has played roughly 30 games since coming together for a Thanksgiving tournament after Maine’s high school soccer season. The team went 9-3-1 in its first NPL season after having played in a lesser league last season.

“The ironic thing,” said assistant coach Martyn Keen, “is it took a three-hour meeting for me to even get this team into the NPL because the league was established before and they didn’t think we were worthy of a place in it.”

Keen said nine of the 12 NPL clubs in New England have automatic entry because of their tradition of high-level soccer at all ages.

“The three others, you have to be voted in,” Keen said. “You have to have the record to get in as a wild card. Luckily we were accepted and we certainly justified that.”

Seacoast United includes players from such high schools as Portland, Yarmouth, Gorham, Gray-New Gloucester, Mt. Ararat, Scarborough, Bonny Eagle, Falmouth, Thornton Academy, Cape Elizabeth, Greely and Cheverus, as well as Bangor and Hampden Academy.

“It’s a lot more organized,” said Falmouth junior Jonah Spiegel, who plays center back, of the Seacoast United team. “The coaching has a lot more purpose. The level of play, obviously, is much higher, more tactical, more technical than high school.”

During February break, they traveled to England for three friendlies against U-16 teams from Manchester United, West Ham and Liverpool.

“It was unreal to see the quality of play over there, just how high it is even at our age,” said Levesque, a striker. “I remember one of the center backs from Manchester United asked if we were a pro team. I took it as a really big compliment. But I was also like, ‘That’s crazy that they think every team they play is another pro team.’ In reality we’re just a bunch of kids from Maine.”

At tournaments in past years, Levesque remembers practically groaning when his team would draw a club from New York or Virginia because the quality of play in those states invariably was high. The reverse held true at a tournament in Maryland over Memorial Day weekend, when Levesque scored eight of Seacoast United’s nine goals and assisted on the other as the team went unbeaten to win its group.

“Almost every team we played, you could tell they didn’t come out as hard as they would have just because they thought this would be another easy game against a Maine team,” said Hunter Graham, a junior midfielder at Greely. “When you come out as hard as you possibly can in the first five minutes and surprise the other team, and maybe get a goal, that can just put them on their heels. When we set the tone, we could really control the game.”

Only four Seacoast United players – Levesque, Cam Twombly of Thornton Academy, Kyle Townsend of Hampden Academy and Eli Clein of Bangor – are entering their senior year. The rest will be juniors. Most, if not all, hope to continue playing soccer in college, making this national tournament even sweeter.

“Some of the college coaches there will actually take the time to look at us since we’re not a stereotypical Maine team,” Spiegel said. “Our coach always says he’s preparing us for the next level. It really helps that he’s a collegiate coach himself.”

So if they don’t wind up getting an overlook, perhaps Spiegel and his teammates can be satisfied with a lookover.

“We knew when we all came together that it was a lot of the best kids in Maine,” Levesque said. “We could only have dreamed that we were going to make it this far.”

Related Stories