The Parkland girls soccer program feels like it is on top of the world. That’s not only because the Trojans are starting the 2016 season next week as defending Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 champions, but the Trojans are reloading.

Key players graduate from nearly every team every year, but the Trojans were not snake bitten in that category like they have been in years past.

Steady defender and multi-year starter Jenn Guetzlaff, along with First-Team All-EPC goalie and West Chester commit Regan Allsop all said goodbye to the program that went 23-2 overall last fall, but head coach Al Haddad, in his 11th season, may have one of the most experienced group of players he has had in a while.

“Like every year, we lose some quality players,” Haddad said. “Jenn was a solid player for us and Regan was a vocal leader from the back line that demonstrated very quick reflexes and made the diving saves in mid-air that ignited our team. Something that very few high school female keepers can do.”

The Trojans will be led by two offensive playmakers who were both named first-team in the conference and in the state.

Senior Rachel Medlar is a midfielder playing in the center of the field and is charged with running the offense and helping out the defense. She scored nine goals and added nine assists last year.

“She is the most technically skilled player in the league,” said Haddad. “She is fast on and off the ball.”

Junior forward Brooke Schutter recorded a team-high 23 goals, and also tallied seven assists, while also scoring against every team in the EPC. She verbally committed to play at Duquesne University.

Along with these two players, Parkland brings back a second-team All-EPC defender in junior Darian Brickhouse. Other notable contributors from 2015 are senior forwards Emily Piston and Rachel Laird, sophomore forward Ava Hanna, senior midfielder Janelle Barna, junior midfielders Helen Flynn and Jenna Leonzi, senior backs Carly Shaffer and Devyn Anderson, junior back Michaela Cohick and senior goalkeeper Olivia Schantz.

Haddad will also be looking to newcomers in senior Maddi Masenheimer, and sophomores Louise Gottwald and Gia Litz to contribute this season.

“The team came into camp in great condition, and the technical skill set is high,” Haddad said. “A definite strength on our team is how hard they are willing to work to improve and get better each day. But like all teams, it’s early and blending the right mix of players from club teams all the way around is always an early season challenge. Our greatest hope is to play an attractive style of soccer which puts us in a position to challenge for the playoffs and championships.”

The Trojans will be considered one of the league favorites to repeat as champions. Their first test will come in their opening game of the season. Parkland opens the season against rival Emmaus Friday at 1 p.m. at the Hornets’ Memorial Field.

“We always talk about the bullseye on our backs and this year, we’ve sort of turned it around and put the bullseye on everybody else,” said Haddad. “We’re going to stay the hunters, not the hunted and that’s changing their mindset a little bit. We don’t want to walk into any game where we feel we’re the better team. We’ll walk in knowing that we’re in for a battle.

“Some of these girls are only 14-years old and they read these things that say we’re number-two in the state. I was hoping for six or seven and I thought, ‘no, don’t put us at number two.’ I couldn’t even imagine us being up that high, but news like that travels through this group quickly, so we squashed that pretty quickly, because we haven’t played anybody.”

This year’s Trojan varsity roster has 11 seniors.

“This is the largest squad we’ve ever taken,” said Haddad. “In my first year, we had 26 girls, because I didn’t want to make a lot of changes, and then we went nine years of smaller squads and we purposely went big this year to make sure we’re preparing younger kids, because we have a lot of seniors.”

Thanks in part to the new turf field at Parkland, Haddad said this is the first season that the Trojans haven’t had any turned ankles and are completely healthy coming into the season. Staying healthy is going to be important if Parkland looks to repeat its efforts from last season and go deeper into states.

“There are no surprises this year, everybody knows that we only lost two seniors, so we have our work cut out for us. The girls understand that our games aren’t going to be blow-outs, they’re going to be battles, because everybody is going to be prepared for us. The key is to stay healthy and then we can see where it falls.”

This year’s team looks to have all the makings of repeating their success from last season, but it’s never easy to duplicate a season like Parkland had in 2015.

“It starts right from the opening game,” said Haddad. “Emmaus is going to be pretty good, and then we go right into Governor Mifflin, so we have to be ready.”