Sports fields stretch from block to block out back at St. Paul Academy.

On Monday, lines of champions stretched that far, too.

On the day designated by the Minnesota State High School League for 2024 fall sports teams to begin practice, the soccer programs that swept the Class 1A titles in 2023 gathered to begin chasing fresh trophies.

As the girls endured a series of runs from goal to goal, coach Aileen Guiney repeated a mantra to remind them how they got there. "This is hard, and I can do it," she shouted.

A few yards away, coach Max Lipset led his boys team, the Class 1A champ the past two years, through similar drudgery, with similar encouragement.

The teams face separate challenges in the new season. Guiney must make a plan that doesn't include the Division I-bound standout who has led the team to the state final two years in a row. That player, Sawyer Bollinger Danielson, will miss the season as she recovers from a knee injury. Bollinger Danielson, second-team All-Metro in 2023, is committed to the Gophers.

Kevin Bertels, Star Tribune
St. Paul Academy girls soccer coach Aileen Guiney speaks to her team during practice Monday.

Guiney will count on others, including senior defender Annie Zhang and juniors Clare Ryan Bradley (13 goals and five assists in 2023), Elizabeth Tuttle (eight goals and five assists in 2023) and Lucia Gonzalez (three goals and six assists in 2023).

Guiney also will count on a process, one involving small improvements building to a big finish. Last season the Spartans closed with eight wins in a row, the last of them 3-0 over St. Charles for the state title. The Spartans opened with two wins in their first 10 games.

"We make sure we are always improving," Guiney said. "We'll be peaking at the right time."

The St. Paul Academy boys program will play for its third state title in a row. Lipset said he focuses on "the importance of being a program and not a bunch of individuals in the same-colored shirt." He cited the benefit of having Twin Cities soccer royalty Buzz Lagos involved as an assistant coach, and he touted returning all-state selection Ezra Straub.

He grinned when he pointed out Straub is not alone.

"After we won last year, it was shocking to realize we had 14 juniors on the team," Lipset said.