“I just want the team to develop chemistry,” he said. “All of these players have their different clubs, and with that they have the way they play for that club. So it’s about having them adapt to this different style of soccer and getting a feel for their teammates.”

The Bulldogs graduated five starters from last year’s indomitable group, but they also return five sophomores who started as freshmen.

“The expectations are set even higher than last year, and I think the kids are looking forward to that,” Deetjen said. “They know that some of the kids from last year have moved on — it will never be the same team again. So they have to make their own destiny as a group.”

The Bulldogs’ championship defense kicks off against Broadneck on Friday.

Whether it has been at club soccer summer camps, outdoors ropes courses or team dinners, four Calvert seniors — Abby May, Alex Baker, Alyssa McLane and Sara Allwine — have spent time together at team events for more than a decade.

The four players joined Maryland-Elite Soccer Club between the ages of 4 and 7 and played together until youth teams began to group players by birth year instead of school year. The quartet briefly split up but shared the field again at the high school level for the Cavaliers without losing chemistry.

“I know Abby wants the ball in front of her so she can run on to it, and I know Sara wants it at her feet so she can dribble,” McLane said. “It’s just things like that that make it easier to play against teams.”

One of their coaches at the club was Baker’s father, Calvert Coach John Baker. He has coached players who have gone on to play at Calvert and other Southern Maryland Athletic Conference schools before, but never at the club and high school level for so long.

“It’s a different group just because of the long-term relationship we’ve had,” John Baker said. “There’s no like, ‘What does the coach think and what do they think?’ We joke and laugh sometimes because we don’t even have to say anything.”

“It’s almost like being able to read each other’s minds,” May added.

The four seniors joined the program one year after it won a state championship in 2019 and have made it to the Maryland 2A semifinals and quarterfinals since. They hope to celebrate the last of their many times on the field together this year with a goal they haven’t accomplished.

“It’s definitely, 100 percent, to win a state championship,” May said.

When Mehdi El Alaoui inherited Bishop O’Connell’s lead job years ago, he left behind a professional volleyball career in Morocco. Early on, he figured he would coach the brand of volleyball he knew, mesh international styles with the American brand of the sport and see what happened.

“It gave me a lot of different ideas about how to coach my teams,” El Alaoui said. “I know how to win games, and that comes from, I think, that we do things differently from other teams.”

The unique approach has appeared to serve the Knights well. Bishop O’Connell has won back-to-back Washington Catholic Athletic Conference titles and begins the year at No. 2 in The Post’s rankings after graduating just one senior.

Domestically, El Alaoui saw a game that favors players with power and stature and a youth system where players specialize at a position from an early age. Under the European style, where substitution rules are more stringent, players learn under a more positionless, versatile approach. He also has closely studied top teams in Japan, which often stand shorter than top American programs but compete at a high level because of intricate technique.

This season, the Knights sport one of their most athletic rosters in program history, with seven players who stand at least 6 feet. Their technique, at that size, should be an edge.

“I have a bunch of options at any time,” senior setter Erin Debiec said. “I could set outside, middle or right side, and they’re all reliable to get a kill.”

“Any player can play any position with no problem,” El Alaoui said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. My only problem is figuring out who is starting.”

Just a sophomore, Washington-Liberty’s Finn Watson is expected to be a leader and compete with the district’s best golfers. He is not fazed by the pressure.

“[Watson] puts himself in a position to win match after match, but then he’s still out here laughing and joking,” Coach Michael Wilkis said. “He doesn’t let the pressure get to him.”

Despite a team loss at the Arlington County championship last week, Watson shot the low round at 2 under par, an early showcase of his skills.

More important matches await later in the season for Watson and Washington-Liberty, including the Liberty District tournament Sept. 19 and 20, and the Northern Region tournament Sept. 26 and 27. Watson finished with the low score in the 2022 regional tournament as a freshman.

Wilkis emphasized that, for the rest of this season, Watson simply needs to keep doing what has worked to this point.

“He’s one of those guys where you don’t really have to spend a ton of time trying to tweak anything,” Wilkis said. “He already knows what he’s doing, and trying to make changes is just going to mess with his swing anyway.”

Freedom (Woodbridge) will field its first field hockey team this year — an impressive feat considering just seven girls had signed up to play when last school year ended.

Building a team from scratch presented challenges. Most students had no interest in the sport or possessed a negative view of it, and it was a struggle to get those who were intrigued to show up.

“I would just tell the girls: ‘Hey, I’m not pushing you into the sport, but I would appreciate it if you guys came out to a practice or two,’ ” Coach Roxana Cubias said. “ ‘And if you end up liking it, you’re on the team.’ ”

When the school decided to start a program, Cubias, an administrative assistant at Gar-Field, was hired within a week of applying. Then she went to work with word-of-mouth recruiting to fill out the roster.

Even the team’s student manager picked up a stick on the first day of practice and is now, in Cubias’s eyes, one of its best players. Freedom’s athletic director also was able to secure donated equipment.

After beginning with conditioning and ball-control drills at home and on the practice field, the Eagles were able to begin scrimmaging and are getting a firmer grasp of the intricacies of the game. Every member of the team is playing field hockey for the first time, and for some it’s also their first experience with organized sports. Naturally, there have been growing pains, but Cubias is still confident.

“The way that they have excelled from Day 1 to now is amazing,” she said. “I think the girls are ready.”

Sidwell Friends has been virtually untouchable in the Independent School League’s AA division for the past four years. The Quakers have a 50-1 record in that span and dominated last year’s ISL and D.C. State Athletic Association tournaments.

Coach Logan West attributed much of that success to the team’s spirited culture, which, in addition to a wealth of talent on the court, has led to dominant performances.

“The first team policy that I installed in my first year as head coach is that every player stays until the end of the dual match,” West said. “That right away made a huge difference; the players felt that support [until] the last match.”

Tennis can be a lonely sport, West said, especially for singles players who can feel as though they’re “out on their own island” during a match. Sidwell’s routine of cheering after every point until the last match ends has alleviated some of that loneliness and, in turn, has created a supportive environment.

“We’re looking to our seniors and captains to step in and set the tone from a [training] standpoint, but also when we’re playing those competitive matches in ISL … that they’re there when their match ends on the fence cheering their teammates on and helping everyone get across that finish line,” West said.

West’s team will have plenty to cheer for as it sets off on its journey toward another ISL banner. Despite graduating All-Met Player of the Year Alice Xu, the Quakers return seniors Clara Zou and Molly Evans, who flourished last season.

William Safford walked into a party venue and joined a throng ready to celebrate his renowned assistant coach’s birthday. But Safford and the rest of the audience had one big question: How old was Austin Gibbs actually turning?

“He won’t tell anybody his age at all. Everybody has a different estimation of his age,” Safford said. “Even at his own birthday parties, people in the room are like, ‘Is he 70, 71, 72?’ ”

“I swear he’s been 50 for like five years,” former athlete Caleb Rose said.

In an interview, Gibbs chuckled, revealing only that he’s over 65.

Gibbs is becoming Crossland’s main cross-country coach this year. His no-tech style can be an adjustment for runners, but once they are able to break through that barrier, they grow to appreciate him.

“He’s kind of like a superhero sometimes,” Rose said.

Born in the Virgin Islands, Gibbs grew up in a large extended family, including a sister who ran competitively. Running became a safe haven for him as he eventually became an alternate for the Olympics.

Shortly after Gibbs’s running days ended, he found a position coaching in the Maryland area. Starting in 1984, he led Forestville High to multiple state championships before the program was shut down because of a lack of enrollment.