As the soccer season continues to unfold for high school teams in Georgia, Bartow County squads hope for a better year than the last when there was only one playoff entry.

It will not be any easier for some teams, who seem to have turned over their entire roster and look to get some young players caught up quick enough to make a decent run toward the postseason.

For other teams -- like Cartersville's boys and Woodland's girls -- the bittersweet ending of coming close enough to taste a state-playoff berth could provide fuel throughout the 2011 season.

Below is a look at each school in the county and its prospects for this soccer season.

Adairsville

The Tigers put together a string of victories at one point last season and could display a similar hot streak this year. Adairsville, 6-12 last season, did not lose a single key player.

Returning for the Tigers are midfielder Jesus Lopez, an all-county pick, and central defender Ryan Sexauer, honorable mention last season, who are both seniors. Lopez is being scouted by local colleges and is a three-time Adairsville player of the year, and Sexauer, a three-year starter, is West Point-bound following high school.

"The team will have to make great strides to improve upon last year's record," Tigers coach Lee Johnson said. "We had a six-game win streak, but once the streak was broken we never recovered. Great mental toughness is needed."

Johnson said he wants Adairsville to play a more fluid game, be multidimensional and to move past mastering basic soccer competence and develop a higher level of play.

The goal for the Tigers, he said, is to win 10 matches and compete in the Region 7-AA playoffs.

The Lady Tigers did win 10 matches last year, losing the other half of their 20-match schedule.

To have any chance of repeating that success, Adairsville will try to replace girls like Megan Webster and Shelley Huskins, who went on to Tennessee Temple and Reinhardt universities, respectively.

Also lost from last season's team are Skylar Maddox, an all-county pick that led the team in goals, Alishia Boswell, honorable mention, and Lauren Sherwood.

Key players like Brooke Chagnon, Cassidy Green and Caitlin Berkenkamp return for the Lady Tigers. Berkenkamp, a three-year starter, once played in the field but is now the team's goalkeeper.

Cartersville

The Lady Purple Hurricanes had the distinction of being the only team in the county, boys or girls, to qualify for the state tournament during the 2010 soccer season. They finished 8-4-2 with their season coming to an end in a first-round, 6-1 loss at Creekview.

Cartersville lost key players from last season's playoff team -- center midfielder Emily Ingram, defender Caitlin Conduff and midfielders Kaitlin Kinney and Amanda Lowenstein -- but return key contributors in forwards Savannah Andersen and Lindsay Anderson (both all-county selections), center back Anna Ward, goalkeeper Grace Tate, midfielders Meredith Holmes, Kaeli McDermott and Mia Robertson and defender Maykaylie Gibbs.

The Lady Canes hope to win a title in their new region, 7-AAA, but will have to contend with several teams they are unfamiliar with.

"It's a long season. [We have to] learn and improve with every match regardless of the outcome," Cartersville girls coach Blake Dudley said.

Cartersville's boys team also has its eyes on the prize, as in the Region 7-AAA title.

The Canes lost several key players from last year's 10-8 team, among them defenders Brian Sager, Joe Coffee and Elijah Smith, midfielders Juan Moreno, Osman Hernandez and Weston Read, and forward Cipriano Jimenez, the team's leading scorer for the last three seasons and also an all-county player of the year in 2010.

Cartersville returns many players from a team that missed state by one match, including defenders Matthew Best (senior), Roger Alvarez (senior), Preston Slemp (sophomore), Tyler Ewchuk (junior), Alec Durbano (sophomore), midfielders Zach Cravey (junior), Mitchell Molina (senior), Cris Pastor (senior), Roselin Perez (senior), Bryson Read (senior), Matthew Bryson (sophomore), and forwards Devon Walker and Collin Barber, both juniors.

"We will be a team that is balanced with a mix of experience [and] youth. This team will be able to compete in every game [it] plays this year with [its] hard work ethic and skillful play on and off the ball," said DJ Paradis, a former assistant who replaced last season's coach, Roger Lowe, who retired. "[We] will also be able to match up with any team with our speed and physical play on both ends of the field."

The Canes will look to become a cohesive unit and, Paradis said, have to be on top on top of their game, compete for the full 80 minutes and take advantage of every opportunity in front of the other team's goal.

The Canes have a tough task of making a run through one of the tougher regions in Class AAA with teams like Dalton, Southeast Whitfield, Heritage-Catoosa, Cedartown and Allatoona.

"The region will compete at a high level this year with several teams that could be serious contenders for the state title," Paradis said of Region 7-AAA members. "We look to make a good showing with our talented squad."

Cartersville already has demonstrated its potential early in the year, playing tight games with Carrollton, which was a quarterfinalist last season, and Gainesville, who won the Class AAA state title.

"This team is capable of competing with any team, and we have already proven [that]," Paradis said of the Canes, who lost 2-1 to Carrollton in a scrimmage and 2-0 to Gainesville. "Coaches from both teams came away impressed with how well [we] played in two tough matches."

Cass

Behind the play of all-county standouts Kayla Fleming and Catelin Kirkland, the Cass girls soccer team finished with a respectable 6-7-1 record in 2010.

Approaching that mark will depend on how the young Lady Colonels -- 13 of 18 players are either freshmen or sophomores -- fit together.

"Losing Kayla and Catelin, you lose a lot," Cass coach Phil Phillips said. "Both of 'em were very aggressive players; they've been playing since they were, like, 7 or 8 years old, and they've played year-round ball."

Even with the loss of Kirkland, a former defender who is now playing at Reinhardt University, the Lady Colonels' defense should be a strong suit for the team. Cass could have each of its three seniors -- Marbeli Castro, Jordan Drawver and Taylor Armstead -- start on the back line. Drawver and Armstead have played for the Lady Colonels since the two were sophomores while Castro is in her fourth year in Cass' system.

"She's a good little defender," Phillips said of Castro. "She knows what to expect. She's been in my program for the last four years, so she's aware of what we're looking for.

"Hopefully, she'll step up and become a captain back there ... and direct them."

The Lady Colonels, he said, will start at least one freshman defender and possibly two, if Phillips decides to use Armstead as either the first player off the bench or a starting midfielder.

"We're implementing these young kids [in our lineup]," Cass' coach said. "Now, they gotta rise to the occasion. ... It's totally different when you play at middle school and then you come up to high school, just like high school to college and so on and so on. It's just a step up."

While he has stated this season is about competing more than actually winning, the Lady Colonels coach would like his team to finish near the .500 mark.

"It'll give them some sense of accomplishment, I feel, but the main thing is we're just looking to compete. We're in a tough region ... especially when you get over on the other side of [Ga.] 400 because that side of the region is basically all travel ball players," Phillips said of Region 7-AAAA, which includes Chattahoochee, Forsyth Central, South Forsyth, Creekview, Lambert and Johns Creek. "We got roughly three girls that [have] played travel ball, three or four. When you're holding 18 players, and you only got four of 'em playing year-round, it's not an even mix."

With the recent addition of Kelsey Wright, Mallary Hedden, Camey Kirkland and Lacey Owens, each of whom recently completed the basketball season, Phillips will look to make the mix work.

"The thing of it is now we have all the pieces of the puzzle ... so now we can just start moving people around," he said. "It's like putting a puzzle together. We got the pieces so now we kind of just figure it out and put it all together."

The Colonels, 4-8-1 last year, had no major losses on the their team and return Christian Dolores, the all-county rookie of the year in 2010, Morgan Ainsworth, another all-county pick, and Leo Delgado, Jorge Ramirez, Edgar Rodriguez and Dillon Strawn, who each earned recognition as an honorable mention.

Woodland

The Lady Wildcats came eerily close to qualifying for state a season ago, ultimately losing in a shootout, 2-1, to Allatoona in the Region 7-AAAA quarterfinals.

Woodland lost five players from last season's 9-5-1 team, including all-county selection Kylie Janusek, a sweeper, who is now at Shorter.

The Lady Wildcats do, however, return two other all-county picks in Sara Garrett, the county's rookie of the year in 2010, and Emily Moore. The two sophomores -- Garrett a midfielder and Moore a defender -- join a group of returning starters that also feature Alexis Velasquez, Stephanie Hicks, Johannah Nunez, Amber Fuller and Hailie Parshall. One other potential returning starter, senior Whitney Waits, suffered a knee injury in the fall and will miss the season.

Of what Woodland gleaned from last year's near playoff run -- it led 1-0 in that loss to the Lady Buccaneers -- Lady Wildcats coach Kyle Morgan said, "We must play the entire match, both mentally and physically, collectively as a unit."

"The challenges for the season will be combining all our young talent with our returning players and coming together as a team as soon as possible," Morgan continued. "We must improve every day in practice [and] games, and progress in a positive manner as the season goes on.

"Our ultimate goal is to finish top four in our region and qualify for the state playoffs. In order to do that, we must focus on [those] challenges and play hard, smart and together every opportunity we have as a team."

The Wildcats finished 5-14-1 last season under the leadership of former coach Rusty Crafton.

First-year coach Brooks Gayton takes over for the Woodland boys this season.

Gayton will have to find someone to replace Guillermo Serrano, but does have the presence of another honorable mention from last year's all-county team in Garrett Livingood.