Head coach Todd Clark's second season was marred by injuries which resulted in the team going 1-14-2 last year. This year's squad looks to build upon a strong recruiting class and a wealth of young talent to return to the postseason. Clark recently sat down with GoCamels.com to discuss the upcoming season.

Question: Can you talk about this year's squad a little bit?

Clark: We obviously still have a very young team. We have 24 kids and 18 of those are freshman or sophomores that are brand new to the program. The core of our kids, the six seniors, are very strong players, very good players, very good leaders and they have been through an awful lot. We don't have a junior class, there's literally not a junior in the group. So we're bigger on enthusiasm than we are on experience. Sometimes that's very good, you can get them to do stuff that more experienced players might not. Last year we were very competitive, I think the one goal games showed that. We just need to stay injury free and turn those one goal games from ties and loses into wins and all of the sudden it is a different season.

Question: You are going on your third season in ‘the Creek', what have learned in the past two seasons?

Clark: I don't know if there is one certain thing that I have learned in my first two years at Campbell that I didn't already know. What I've learned is something that I probably already knew but I haven't experienced in that injuries or lack thereof are so key for success. We've had an incredible amount of injuries by anyone's standards. You just need players and the right players to be successful.

Question: Your latest recruiting class achieved its highest ranking in school history, what do you expect out of the incoming class?

Clark: Supposedly it is the best recruiting class that Campbell has brought in according to SoccerBuzz.com. Which is flattering because there have been some incredible players that have played here in the past, including some of the players that are here now. It's on paper, now you've go to win. It means we have the best recruiting class, it doesn't mean we have the best team. It's a great start because it means that people think that we have done our job as coaches to get people here. And now we have to continue to do our job as coaches and prepare them to win soccer games.

Question: What are your expectations for the upcoming season?

Clark: We've kind of done the same thing that we have done in the last preseason and before the conference in that we have kind of got a mixture of some games that should prepare us as a young team. It will be a way to get people to play and get minutes to find out what it's really about before it really matters like it will in the conference and that is the ultimate test. Then when you get into the conference that is where everyone has to perform. It was a bit discouraging last season that we came through the non-conference part of the schedule with very few injuries and I felt that we were playing some pretty good soccer. That would've prepared us for the conference because we took on those tougher non-conference games to prepare for that and I felt that we were prepared. A couple of injuries came along and I think that it's unfortunate. It's part of the game, tough luck. If we hadn't had a bunch of injuries and we had won a bunch of game I wouldn't have been crying so I can't really cry now because like I said it's a part of the game. We are a little more prepared to cover that this season because of the numbers and the experience but I would say we have to be prepared to play in the playoffs. I think once you get into the playoffs, the reality of our conference is that anybody can win it.

Question: Your team consists of 18 freshman and sophomores, how do you plan to overcome the inexperience on the team?

Clark: You don't. There is no way to get kids experience except to give them experience. We picked up another preseason game really late to try to give them a little bit more experience. We will try to chuck them into practice and create a practice environment that will hopefully mirror a game but we have always done that. We will depend on the older players to try and right away to help them understand what it's going to take. We've obviously provided them throughout the summer, both us and the older players, have provided the younger players with emails, videos, DVDs and books of stuff. Whether it be lifting or conditioning or different expectations to try to close that gap, but the reality is we would be going at it the same way if it was a junior or senior led team. In one way the great thing is all of our sophomores had to play last year as freshman. That was very difficult for us as a team. We were very inexperienced and it showed at times, but we were getting beat by teams that were junior and senior heavy. Now those teams that have graduated some of those seniors are going to turn around and play us with freshmen, whereas all of our sophomores have that experience because they truly did play and not sit on the bench. So even though our team has freshmen and sophomores I still consider that our sophomores have played rather than sat and I think you will see that experience.

Question: Can you talk about some of the strengths of this year's team?

Clark: Resilience. No doubt about it, easy answer. We have had a fantastic spring. I feel as if the kids are as prepared as they have been certainly in my time here. I would say in my time here and experience at other schools this is a team that is very ready, the returnees are ready and know what it takes.

Question: It seems last years squad struggled to put the ball in the back of the net, what can you do this season to try to rectify that situation?

Clark: The reality of it is that we need Kaili Terry healthy on our team. She is the best scorer. There is no doubt about that. We brought in a few of the freshmen that are very strong in that area in case something happens to somebody like Kaili, but also because if Kaili Terry ever goes for a good while without getting hurt it's going to be very apparent within our conference that she was a go-to kid. She was a go-to kid as a freshman, she's certainly going to be a go-to kid the next time she is on the field. She ripped it up in the spring even though she was fighting through her shoulder injury. Everybody knows that she is our scoring threat. But whether she is hurt or not we still need to take pressure off of her and we need to have people there if she can't play and we need to have people to assist her. I think we have brought in two significant goal scoring threats and I think we have developed two others as a result of last season.

Question: What areas do you feel need improvement in order for the team to have success this season?

Clark: It's not scoring. We need to truly be a team. I think in the last two years here that hasn't exactly been the case. This team is unified, truly unified, it's not just talk. This isn't a team that says it's a team and then when things will get tough two or three people will peel off and go there own direction when it is convenient for them. This is a group of people that have stuck through it, through thick and thin, things that they didn't like or things that they didn't enjoy and they have continued to go in one way as a group and I think that is the biggest thing and I think that is what has hurt us more so than the scoring.

Question: How do you see the conference playing out this season?

Clark: Kennesaw will be the favorite. No question about it that they are the favorite. I say that and we lost to them in the 89^th minute last year on a penalty at Kennesaw so that shows me how close we are. Mercer was the runners up and we lost to them in the 88^th minute. We had our chances in both games to be done with it and they could've been chasing us the whole game. It doesn't sound like much, but that's why they consistently do that to people and consistently close people out and win games in the 89^th minute or whatever it takes and we need to get to that point. I also see Florida Gulf Coast becoming a very big player this season as well.