Todd Close wasn't too familiar with the Southeast Whitfield girls' soccer program prior to taking the head coaching position this season.
In fact, had he been more knowledgeable, he would have been aware he was taking over a program that had won only three matches the year before and hadn't been to the playoffs since 2011.
That, however, didn't stop Close from turning around the program and leading them back to the postseason.
The Lady Raiders finished the regular season with a 9-2-2 record and the No. 2 seed in Region 7-AAAA, which means they'll host a first-round playoff game tonight against White County (10-4) at 6.
Close was the athletic director and worked at Our Lady of Perpetual Health -- the feeder school for Notre Dame -- before taking over at Southeast.
"When I interviewed, nobody could tell me how the team did (last year)," Close said Monday. "They told me we beat Dalton last year, and I asked, 'Were we .500?' We won three games last year, so I told the team our goal was to win four, try to make progress and improve."
Coaching in a town where boys' soccer is such a big draw -- Dalton has won consecutive state championships while Northwest and Southeast are always competitive -- sometimes drowns out the girls' soccer programs. So does playing in a region where programs such as Heritage have been in the state semifinals in recent years, but the Lady Raiders seemed to have carved out their own space this season.
They've been led by the senior leadership of Maria Quijanio and Clarissa Martinez, the goal scoring abilities of Ester Paniagua, the vocal leadership of Melisa Fraire and the versatility of Tania Lopez.
They'll need each one of those qualities this evening against the Lady Warriors, a team Close described as "aggressive...always looking to push the attack."
"One thing I stressed before the season was I wanted the girls to feel their program matters," he said. "There is no big brother, little sister here. I told them they were for real and tried to get them to believe in themselves and hopefully they do. Where we've fallen short in matches, we were able to see where we fell short. If we played any of those teams we lost to again, who knows what would have happened? I think we've improved."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.
GHSA State Playoff schedule
Tuesday Class AAAA Northwest Whitfield girls at Buford, 5 White County girls at Southeast Whitfield, 6 Heritage girls at Chestatee, 6 Wednesday Class AAAAA Flowery Branch boys at Dalton, 7 Class AAAA Buford boys at Northwest Whitfield, 6 Chestatee boys at Southeast Whitfield, 6 Thursday Class AAA Rockmart girls at Calhoun, 5 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe girls at Callaway Ringgold girls at Central, Carroll Class AA Dade County girls at Social Circle, 6 Friday Class AAA Callaway boys at Calhoun, 7 Pepperell boys at North Murray, 6:30 Sonoraville boys at Cedartown Coahulla Creek boys at Central, Carroll