Colette Lyons hopes to see her team in the playoffs at the end of the season, that much is clear.

The Bremerton High School girls soccer coach just isn’t sure what the team must do to accomplish that.

“We pretty much need to win every game, that way it won’t matter,” the second-year coach said Wednesday, less than a week before her squad’s Sept. 7 season opener against Peninsula High School.

Bremerton will be the lone Class 3A team in the combined 3A/2A Olympic League for the 2010 season, meaning the Lady Knights face a different criteria for qualification to the playoffs. The league experienced a major shake-up, at least as classification goes, when North Kitsap, Olympic and Port Angeles High Schools dropped from 3A to 2A following the 2009-10 school year.

Classification is based on the size of a school’s student body.

So although Bremerton will play the majority of its regular-season matches against 2A opponents from the Olympic League, it will compete with 3A teams from the Seamount League for a berth to the postseason. The team doesn’t play Seamount teams during the regular season.

How does that make sense?

“I’m still not totally sure how it works,” said Lyons, a 1999 Bremerton grad.

Well, here’s the formula:

Bremerton will earn one-and-a-half points each time it defeats a 4A or 3A opponent. It will earn one point for victories over 2A and 1A teams. At the end of the season, the points are tallied and divided by the number of games played. Bremerton qualifies for the playoffs if its average is better than any of the top three teams from the Seamount League.

The Lady Knights play 13 matches against 2A and 1A teams, three against 3A teams and none against 4A teams.

“The coach in charge at our last coaches meeting didn’t even really understand it,” Lyons said.

What is certain is that Lyons expects her team to compete for a playoff berth. The Lady Knights missed the sub-district tournament by one point last season, being edged by Port Angeles High School in a race that came down to the final week of the season.

The team will be without former captain Angelique White, who graduated, as well as three additional key players from 2009: goalkeeper Kristy Wood and defenders Brooke Erickson and Courtney Williams.

But forward Julie Belden, a junior who was among the team leaders in scoring a year ago, returns along with Jessica Martindale, Sydney Williams and Shauntice Perrigo.

Lyons not only believes all four will play key roles in the success of the team, but she expects them to lead by example, welcoming the newcomers.

“We are focused on working as a team,” Lyons said. “That’s going to be one of the keys to success, to play together, to come together. We don’t want any cliques on the team.”

By the numbers

1: Bremerton is the only Class 3A team in the 3A/2A Olympic League.

1: The point differential between Bremerton and Port Angeles for the final playoff spot in 2009.

5: The Lady Knights lost five seniors to graduation.

Schedule

Sept. 7 Peninsula 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 8 Port Angeles 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 9 at Foster 6 p.m.

Sept. 14 at Olympic 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 16 Klahowya 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 21 Bonney Lake 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 23 at N. Mason 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 28 at Sequim 6:45 p.m.

Sept. 30 Kingston 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 5 at North Kit. 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 7 Port Townsend 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 12 at Port Angeles 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 14 Olympic 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 19 at Klahoywa 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 20 North Kitsap 6:45 p.m.

Oct. 26 North Mason 6:45 p.m.