York head coach Brandon Childs doesn’t need much reminding of what his program lost to graduation last year, especially on the offensive end.

Thomas Pfeiffer, Hunter Davis and Brendan McGrath combined for nearly 700 career points and all rank in the top five of the Spartans’ all-time points leaderboard. But they’ve graduated, and York has a slew of attackmen competing for starting spots.

“In the seasons prior, you could pretty much just flip the unit over from the last few years,” Childs said. “You just knew they’d be the guys.”

The Spartans are still sorting out their best attacking trio. Childs said York will likely start a different group for their home opener against Stevenson this Saturday. It’s a luxury the CAC powerhouse can afford, especially having made two straight NCAA tournament quarterfinals. York has started 2020 with wins over Eastern and Washington and Lee.

Will Harnick, a freshman, and Chandler Schmidt, a junior who transferred in from Harford Community College, have been bright spots so far. But the broader puzzle isn’t yet complete.

“When you start to almost write out the pros and cons and weigh it out, you end up with an even rank for all five or six,” Childs said. “So then it becomes how we piece them together to figure out who the best combinations are, and that’s the process we're in right now. I’d like to have it done, but I don't want to rush it and end up landing upon the wrong group.”

York is also coping with major turnover on the defensive end, notably the loss of Kevin Witchey, the 2019 USILA Division III Defenseman of the Year. There’s also the departures of J.D. Beck and faceoff specialist Billy Sasso, All-Americans themselves, presenting holes that need patching.

That said, Childs isn’t too concerned about how the defense will ultimately look. Much of his midfield returns, including short stick Danny O'Connell and long pole Nick Roman.

“The group there is four or five guys competing for three spots as opposed to six or seven [guys] for three [spots] on attack,” Childs said. “We'll arrive to our group there quicker, but we’re trying to feel that out as well. We have more experience we’re playing with, guys who have been waiting behind some exceptional players and are ready as opposed to new, inexperienced guys on the attacking end. I like what we’re doing on the defensive end, quite frankly. It just feels a little different than what we’re used to.”

Still, the numbers tell quite the tale when looking at what York’s 2019 class did for the program. Their careers ended with a 73-14 record and three NCAA quarterfinal appearances, plus a pair of CAC regular season titles as upperclassmen. While the CAC has historically been led by Salisbury, the likes of Pfeiffer and Witchey helped to make York a household name in D-III.

This new chapter also leads to personal challenges that Childs, the CAC Coach of the Year three seasons running, welcomes with open arms.

“I'd get nervous before a big game last year, and then I’d think of the names I was putting out on the field and the number of games they played in,” Childs said. “That’d put me at rest a little bit. But this year, there’s a little bit of adventure that comes with the unknown, where as it relates to practice and preparation and improvement as the year goes on, our staff has been really intentional. It’s not infrequent for us to write the names of five or six kids on a dry-erase board so that daily we’re seeing those names and pouring into those guys.”

As answers are sought, York enters a tough three-game stretch against Stevenson, Lynchburg and Gettysburg. Shortly after arrives the Mustang Classic, where it’ll face Ohio Wesleyan and RIT. Then the team travels to 2019 national champion Cabrini for a repeat of last year’s NCAA tournament bout.

It’s not quite sink or swim time, but the new-look Spartans will certainly be put to the test.

“We try to break down every film we have of us competing in games through the lens of a loss instead of the lens of a win,” Childs said. “We’ve actually been pretty critical through the first two wins. That’ll continue no matter what, but this stretch of opponents will reveal some weaknesses individually and collectively that we can address so that we’re our best product come May.”