The players on the Lawrence High girls soccer team should be accustomed to coaching changes. In November, the program hired its fourth different head coach in four years.

Justin Young, a paraprofessional at Olathe South High School, will take the reigns from previous head coach Jana Kepler, who resigned in the summer. Young will inherit a Lady Lions program that finished with a losing record last spring of 3-14.

Young decided to kick off his first season as a high school head coach by putting the girls through a rigorous off-season conditioning program.

“After winter break, I made a promise to the team that every day was going to get harder, and it did, but the girls came every day with smiles on their faces, always willing to work,” Young said. “That says a lot for what we have going forward.”

The first-year head coach was glad to have the opportunity to get the girls in shape. When the regular season gets under way he wants as much time as possible to practice skills that will help the team win.

“We need to emphasize tactics because we can be good with the ball at our feet, but we have to know what to do with it,” Young said.

So far, things have changed for the better,  sophomore Sadie Keller said.

“Last year we weren’t all supporting each other all the time, and we had some individuals that were interested in different things other than building the program and making the team better,” Keller said. “This year is going to be better because we have more seniors, and they are more committed to the program.”

A solid season this year would go a long way to bring stability to the program, especially after the departure of the previous three coaches over the last three years.

“We want to give a foundation for coach Young, and hopefully he has a good first year, so he wants to stay,” Keller said.

Young, who said he always embraces a challenge, has aspirations to stay as long as possible.

“I told the girls when I met them that I don’t plan on leaving,” Young said. “There’s no reason to. I’m the head coach of a soccer program — that’s what I wanted.”

The competitor in him doesn’t allow him to roll over and accept defeat. Instead Young wants to build a program that other schools fear playing for years to come.

“I didn’t come here just to have fun and try really hard. I want to contend, ” Young said. “I told the girls, the end goal here is to win a state championship.”