Some coaches like to refer to it as reloading instead of rebuilding.
Jefferson City Jays head soccer coach Eddie Horn has no such qualms. The Jays are rebuilding this season.
"We are a lot different team," Horn said as the Jays prepared for today's season-opener against C.B.C. in St. Louis. "We don't have a lot of varsity experience."
Gone are a group of what Horn described as "dynamic players." Graduated seniors include all-time leading scorer Marcus Woodruff, and current college players Nathan Luebbert, Aaron Crane and Mason Vonderhaar.
Instead, the team will go back to "old-time" Jays soccer.
"My reputation will be back as a defensive-minded coach after people not knowing what to expect when we were scoring so many goals in the past couple of years," Horn said with a laugh. "We're going to have to do some things differently without them.
"We will see if we can get ahead 1-0 and try to make it stand up."
The Jays return just a handful of players with varsity experience.
"We only have four players with what I would call true varsity experience," Horn said. "We have more letterwinners than that, but a lot of those guys really only came up late last season."
Two players who were injured during last season return in junior Zach Brooks, who will start in goal, and Colton Acock. Brooks is back after a broken thumb, while Acock had surgery in November on a torn ACL.
Jason Myers and Seth Stegeman will start at center backs in front of Brooks. Alec Propst will get the nod at right back, while the left back spot is up in the air between Yeri Celada and Leighton Boyce.
"If we can get settled with the back four, I think we should be pretty solid defensively," Horn said.
Eric Sporleder, Logan Horn and Cody Boyce are among the players set for the midfield.
Spencer Bone and Jordan Carron are slated to start at forward.
"We are going to be counting on both of those guys to find the back of the net for us," Eddie Horn said.
Horn said the Jays need to be dangerous on restarts to score goals this season.
"We have some guys like Sporleder and Stegeman and Carron that have good size who can go up and get the ball in front of the net," Horn said.
Horn believes the talent is there, it will just take some time for it to gel.
"It will probably take us until October to really find ourselves," he said. "We're going to need that time to become accustomed to playing together as a team and get used to playing varsity.
"But we've got enough to have a pretty successful season."
Horn, who is entering his 25th year as head coach of the Jays, said he hasn't done enough to get the team ready for the season.
"I haven't done a very good job of preparing the team for the start of the season with our lack of experience," he said. "Our kids know the system, but after playing in the Jamboree and our scrimmage, we're not as far a long as I thought we would be."
It doesn't help the Jays' schedule is as demanding as ever.
"Just because you lose a talented group of players, it doesn't mean you should water down your schedule and then move it back up when you think you're going to be good," Horn said. "We're going to play anybody and make the most of it. But because of the schedule, I think by the end of the year we can be pretty good and can do something in the playoffs."
Jefferson City won the district tournament title last season and finished with a record of 20-6.