Isaac Rice and Sam Tillen are looking forward to the new campaign after the Academy squad returned for the first day of player testing ahead of pre-season.
The pair were in high spirits as the players reported back, with both speaking about the excitement of having the group together again.
Rice said: "We're really excited, met the lads this morning and they're obviously in really good spirits, there was a lot of planning behind the scenes over the summer so just excited to get going now.”
Looking ahead to the new season, Rice outlined the coaching staff's aims for the group.
He explained: "To be competitive is number one, we think ultimately we'll try to implement a strategy and a philosophy that makes us competitive in the leagues and in the cups as well.
"Hopefully we'll try and be an attacking team that expresses themselves and is positive in possession and then try and make sure we're always solid at the back and prevent any transitions.”
As well as performances on the pitch, Rice believes building relationships within the squad will be key throughout pre-season.
He said: "I think togetherness is a big one with it being a new group. This preseason tour we're going on I think that will be key, I think building a chemistry early on is going to be really important.
"We were lucky enough to have the group from around Christmas with the new lads coming in, so a lot of the stuff we've done has been embedded since then so it's just carrying that on and perfecting what we've worked on."
Tillen said: "It's great to have the boys back and we're looking forward to seeing how they've been preparing themselves to come back in.”
The dedication shown by the players over the summer has not gone unnoticed by the coaching staff.
Tillen added: "We've been very diligent in terms of keeping everybody on their toes and everyone has been reporting in in terms of what they've been doing off-season so we're looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labour.”
The young Imps will face a variety of opposition during pre-season as they prepare for the upcoming Youth Alliance North campaign.
Tillen said: "We've got a variety of games, we're playing some men's teams, some teams that are academy level and we're going to go to West Ham as well so there's a vast array of different games to give the boys different challenges.”
"We're gonna see how they handle those different tests, the physicality of men's football, the technical competencies of category one academies and then hopefully we can assert ourselves in the games against similar category three programmes so I'm looking forward to it and seeing how they adapt to each scenario.”
Rice also highlighted the importance of the pre-season schedule with a trip to Lincoln United on Friday 10 July on the horizon.
He explained: "We've planned it so they get a good variation over the course of preseason, the first one being Lincoln United which is always going to be a test with them being a men's team so it's good for development to experience that.”