As Maine’s first and only professional men’s soccer club wraps up its inaugural season, the founder of Portland’s Hearts of Pine is exploring the addition of a women’s pre-professional soccer team to the franchise.

Gabe Hoffman-Johnson said a women’s team has long been part of the mission of Hearts of Pine and is a natural evolution.

One of the things he’s enjoyed most this first season “is this aspirational element of what this club can do for young kids around Maine, and to have real professional players playing in their backyard,” Hoffman-Johnson said. “To be able to provide that same opportunity for boys and girls is pretty special.”

Hoffman-Johnson said the pre-professional summer league would be predominantly for collegiate players, and that he’s in early conversations with the

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