MANKATO — The 2010 high school season officially kicks off today for area teams when Mankato East hosts New Prague in a 3 p.m. nonconference girls game at Thomas O. Anderson Fields.

More local teams join the fray Friday and Saturday when the Mankato Loyola/Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial boys and girls teams and the Mankato West girls team participate in the Crusader Classic on Good Counsel Hill.

The West boys also play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Winona. The East boys complete the opening weekend with a 1 p.m. match Saturday in Willmar.

Here is a thumbnail sketch of each team:

West girls

The numbers remain excellent for the Scarlets as they will field a varsity, a junior varsity and two C-squads for the fourth straight season.

The varsity team is loaded with returning players including attackers Alyssa Brinkman, Jacqui Miller and Bretta Oxnard. Captain Emmalei Huber returns in the midfield along with Holly McKissick.

Captain Brianna Christiansen will lead the defense along with Cara Christiansen and Tessa Rector. Goalkeeper Jamie Wright is also back.

A year ago West set a school record for goals in a season (50) and head coach Crissy Makela says there’s every reason to believe they can approach that number again in 2010. The Scarlets also qualified for state for the first time in the program’s 14-year history.

“We are certainly proud of our accomplishments, but we need to focus our attention on a new season and build up to earning postseason matches,” Makela said. “We need to set new goals and work hard every day to reach them.”

East boys

Head coach Jerrad Aspelund is having to rebuild his entire defense this preseason but says the Cougars are pretty solid everywhere else.

Brandon Welter, along with captains Adam Osman and Kevin Gjersvig are back to lead the offense. Goalkeeper Derrick Davis also returns after sharing the position last fall and going undefeated during the regular season.

Aspelund has plenty of bodies to fill out the defense. There are 84 student athletes out for soccer, including 40 at the junior high level. The Cougars will field two C-squads this season to get everybody playing time.

Among the top candidates to start on defense are sophomores Nick Dahmann and Russian native Albert Podshivaylov. Aspelund says he’ll probably try a number of different players in the other defensive spots until he finds the right mix for a starting unit.

East was 12-3-2 in 2009 and has high hopes for this season.

“I don’t think we’ll lose a step,” Aspelund said. “I’m confident we’ll find some good defenders and we’re pretty strong at the other positions. If we score more goals than the other team, that’s all that matters.”

Loyola/LCWM girls

The Crusaders went 6-13 last season and return a fair amount of experience. Among the top returnees are Hannah Gaspar, Mel Sorenson, Aunikah Bastian, Alia Coughlan, Sarah Peller and Abby Harris.

 Head coach Michael Azarbod said the Crusaders’ main goal is to improve as a team and work toward becoming better athletes.

“We have become stronger, faster and more disciplined than last year,” he said. “Reaching our full potential while taking a top seed in our section (are among the things we’re striving for in 2010).”

West boys

The Scarlets took a hit after last season when they graduated 20 seniors, including seven starters, but head coach Leonard Woelfel is confident the team will play well again in 2010.

The top returnees are center-midfielder Andrew Rorick, outside-midfielder Tim Baerg, junior defender Jake Collins and junior defender Alec Wright.

The entire starting forward line from 2009 is gone. Among the top candidates to fill those spots are Bill Leitch and Terry Young.

Jace Leiferman has graduated and that makes goaltending the biggest question mark heading into the season. Woelfel has four candidates in Nick Wiemers, Zach Fox, Tanner Johnson and Nick Herwig.

The Scarlets have qualified for state three times in the last four seasons. That includes last year when they lost in the first round of the Class A tournament.

“I think we’ll be in the hunt again,” Woelfel said. “Every team loses a few players so we’ll have to see what shakes out.

“I know East and Worthington and Willmar all retained quite a few players. It’ll come down to who’s jelling at the end of the year.”

East girls

The Cougars lost some talented seniors from 2009, including Dani Steele and Sarah Brozik, but also return a wealth of experience.

The 20-player varsity squad includes Marta Anderson, Mandy Smith and captain Ashleigh Pischke in the forward-midfield area. It also includes stopper Amanda Iversen and sweeper Hannah Whittington on defense.

Goalkeeper Kelsey Ekstedt is also back to provide experience between the posts. Among the team’s other top returnees are Caitlyn Clause, Rebekah Kolstad and captain Alex Miller.

 The Cougars enjoyed one of their best seasons in 2009, going 10-8-3 and reaching the championship game of the Section 2A Tournament.

“We were seeded fifth (in the section) last year and we’re hoping to improve that this season,” Wamma said. “If we play well during the regular season, the seed will take care of itself.”

Loyola/LCWM boys

Improvement is the by word for the Crusaders in 2010. The team is coming off a four-win season and head coach Cyrus Azarbod said the goal is to increase that number.

It won’t be easy as the team lost eight players to either graduation or transfers and most of them were starters. Still, he has some quality players coming back.

Among the top returnees are sweeper Andrew Brase, midfielder Isaiah Schultz, defender Taylor Peterson and midfielder Corbin Brocker. Jake Clements also returns to start in net for the second straight season.

“We were a very young team last year,” Azarbod said. “Our goal for this year is to improve our number of wins and to advance further in our section.

“The main thing is we want each player to get better. We’re working hard on conditioning and we believe that will help us.”