A familiar face is back at the helm of the Lindbergh boys soccer team in Mark Giesing.

The longtime Flyers coach — for both the girls team and boys team — retired from coaching in 2019 and 2023, respectively. However, when Lindbergh’s athletic director, Scott Luczak, decided that the boys program was heading in a different direction coach-wise, he reached out to Giesing to take over once more, and the rest is history.

“I’ve been involved with Lindbergh soccer since 1989 in one capacity or another. It’s always been a part of — not just my life, but my family’s life. Multiple children of mine have played through the program. Even when I haven’t been coaching, I’ve always been an avid supporter of the program,” Giesing said. “I was in retirement; I was always looking for something to do, and I was always showing up at the games anyway. So I figured, yeah, let’s go back to it.”

In total, 132 students tried out for the program, with approximately half securing a spot on one of Lindbergh’s three teams. The large group of applicants led to larger-than-average teams, with 26 on the varsity roster.

“(Lindbergh) is a really large school in the state of Missouri,” Giesing said. “Maybe it’s the passion brought up in the World Cup … We’ve always had good numbers, but these numbers even exceed a typical year where we would always be around maybe 100 to a maximum of 120. This was one of the largest groups I remember ever having to deal with.”

Ten juniors and 16 seniors make up Lindbergh’s 2026 varsity squad. Though a more senior-heavy group than typical, keeping exclusively upperclassmen on varsity is not new to Giesing.

“I was always an advocate for not bringing guys up too early. I think we maybe have strayed away from that a little bit in the last couple of years … but I’ve always believed in program building, and I believe that sometimes when you bring a kid up too early, due to either size or strength or maturity, sometimes that isn’t always in the player’s best interest,” Giesing said.

The Flyers will have just one captain this season: senior Arnes Dakic. According to Giesing, Dakic noticed that the team lost many defensemen to graduation, leading him to swap positions from midfield to defense to better suit the team.

“He’s just an incredibly versatile player and a selfless player,” Giesing said. “This really kind of selflessly took him out of what I think is a more natural position for him in the midfield. But it just speaks to his leadership that he’s really a team-first kind of guy. It’s going to even take the glamor away from him because he’s likely not to score as many goals or have as many assists in a more defensive role, but he was willing to take on that role.”

In the midfield, Giesing points to junior Adam Becker as a strength.

“Adam is a very technically gifted player. Great vision of the field. He’s just got great soccer sense and soccer savvy. He looks to be a key guy to kind of lead that offense out of the midfield,” Giesing said.

Other standout players include transfer student Javi Vigil and senior Sani Hodzic. The pair will be the team’s strikers.

“Javi … found his way over to Lindbergh this year, and he looks to be one of the guys we’re going to count on for scoring goals. He’ll be paired up with a guy named Sani Hodzic. Sani got some decent minutes last year as a junior, but I think he’s going to really have a breakout year as a senior, playing in a high position for us. He’s really good with just holding on to the ball and letting the offense build up around him,” Giesing said.

This season’s goal for Giesing, first and foremost, is for the Flyers to win districts again. Per Giesing, out of the last seven years, Lindbergh earned the title of district champions for five of those years.

As far as most-anticipated games, Giesing did not hesitate to answer.

“Well, I’m a South County resident for life, and for me, there’s always three big games: Mehlville, Oakville and Vianney. That’s kind of my big three on my calendar every year,” he said. “Growing up in South County and being a fan of South County soccer all my life, it’s always about Mehlville, Oakville and Vianney. I’ve often joked: ‘I don’t really care what we do with anybody outside of South County, but we’ve got to win those three games.’”

Lindbergh starts its regular season away against Eureka. The Flyers will play their first home game of the season on Sept. 3 against Christian Brothers College High School.

“It’s just a tremendous group of young men,” Giesing said. “The team is balanced. They are very mature and exceptionally coachable. Having coached 17-, 18-year-old boys most of my life, that doesn’t always happen. A lot of them are confident they know everything, and this is a group that’s hungry for instruction and willing to adapt to help the team out … I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to get back into it again.”