Soccer is a sport commonly played in the fall, but seniors at Kennebunk High School believe that the sport really starts in the spring. The high school takes a unique approach to sports and offers a packed offseason with opportunities for players to take the field with their soon-to-be teammates, a system that has become crucial to the program’s success.

However, in 2020, the team missed the in-person summer season because of the coronavirus pandemic and had a much shorter regular season. Fall practices were divided into cohorts and the situation left rising seniors such as Garrett Dickinson thinking how the “[upperclassmen] really don’t know all of the freshmen and sophomores.”

Senior Connor Keefe said the team “didn’t really have that chemistry going right into an intense season” last year. With only one week of in-person practices before the first varsity game for the team, not all players felt ready to play.

With the 2021 return of the summer soccer season, however, the team is more optimistic. “Summer soccer … overall is something that you don’t focus so much on how you’re performing, but more on just building that chemistry,” said  Keefe. “It will be a nice reset” for the club.