Youth will be no excuse for the Sanford girls soccer team anymore. Though the Spartans still have plenty of room to grow.

Sanford finished 4-9-1 last season as a young, scrappy team and was the first team out of the Western Maine Class A playoffs. With many of the same faces returning, to go along with a new coach who isn’t new to the players, the Spartans aim to be above that cut-off line for the Class A South tournament.

“We’re really hoping to make playoffs this year. Just being that close to making it in (last year) really pushes us,” said junior Vanessa Hodge, who is in her second year as a captain.

Hodge and her classmates went through a 14-game trial-by-fire a season ago, and are now hoping that last year’s youth is now this year’s experience.

“I think that since we were such a young team, we were still building together. Every year we become more of a team playing together. We are still a young team, but we’ve been playing together for the past two years,” said Hodge. “Last year all we heard was we have a lot of potential. This year we really hope to show that potential and make it something.”

Now in charge of turning that potential into success is first-year head coach Chris Coleman. And while he may be new to the team in title, Coleman has known the players for two years through a partnership with Global Premier Soccer Maine. Coleman worked with last year’s team during weekly “challengers.”

“After working with the girls last year, and meeting them two years ago, I knew there was a lot of potential here, and I knew there was a lot of great players who I felt like I had helped develop,” said Coleman. “They’re a fantastic team that just needs that extra push … and I believe that I can give them that.” Hodge said the players have really taken to Coleman as their new coach. “He just really pushes us. He has so much confidence in us, so he really pushes us to have confidence in ourselves,” said Hodge. “He sees so much potential that we do have, and we have great players, he just pushes us to play to those potentials. He just really gets the best out of us when we play, and he doesn’t expect anything less than the best out of us.”

The Spartans have a nucleus built around a 10-member junior class and senior goalie Kyla Bragg. They showed flashes last year but struggled to put consistent stretches of success together.

“The big thing for me was do the simple things right. I think the girls, because they know they can, they can deal with the hard things, and sometimes we miss the simple things,” Coleman said of a key improvement needed for a better season this year.

Coleman will lean on Hodge both for leadership and for her ability on the field. She is part of a “great spine,” according to Coleman that also includes junior midfielder Sydney Littlefield, another second-year captain, junior defender Kristen O’Connell and Bragg in net.

Coleman’s preferred formation is a little bit of a change for the players, but Hodge said the transition has been an easy one.

Now the team just needs to transition its potential into real progress. Coleman has no doubts.

“We take it game by game this year, but the one big target is making the playoffs and see how far we can get. I think from a coaching standpoint, as well, I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get there,” said Coleman. “I’m pretty confident if we do all the things right we’ll get there.”

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ WilTalkSports.