US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM MD Girls 2028

They only beat them 1 time out of all the times they are played or scrimmaged. The 28 team is the best 28 team in the country while the 27 team is average. This proves how much 1 year can make while younger but the gap closes by HS. The best 28 team struggles to beat an average 27 team.

Absolutely.

Age / maturity factor is still VERY significant at this age. It is pretty obvious watching any 28 team play who the older girls are.

Anyone signing up for the American Select tryouts? Is it really worth the cost at this age of a just a money maker? The selection process seems much less biased than the AU tryouts:

The tryout process will be unlike any other, with collegiate coaches evaluating and selecting players. Club coaches will not be selecting the teams.

Professional Independent Evaluators
Collegiate Coach Evaluators
No Club Coaches Will Select The Teams
Identifying The Best Players From Each Region Regardless Of Club Or HS Affiliation

We’re the AU tryouts really biased? Everyone made the team!

Are you 100% certain everyone made the team? I know a few that tried out that didn't. Also, the groupings were based on club affiliations.

Not all of the girls from the same club were on the same team. They were split among both Md Teams.

Once again, middle class parents lose out. Don't make enough to afford the tuition and make too much to qualify for financial aid. This also goes for college tuition!

Back to the original question, this is 100% a moneymaker. All told it will cost 700$ per player, so how could it not be? Seems like AS adds a younger year every year and last year they had 2 teams for 24-26 years (so not only top 22 players as it says). That doesn't mean it won't be a good experience and I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of girls in this area try out.

Yes, the only hope is that strong academics help a coach stack some scholarship money for them, and then it will mean a lot of time on the athlete's part applying for outside scholarships and grants.

Its a very well run event, but no one is getting recruiting at that event. And depends on where you live, Delaware hotels are outrageous that time of year.

Had a 24 and 26 play it in last year. The competition for the 24s was outstanding and tons of exposure during the pool play days. The 26 games were much less so. It was pretty clear lots of the top 26s weren't attending this event so game against teams outside NY/NJ weren't that competitive.

Selection felt relatively fair for the most part. However a couple girls made the team who didn't even attend tryouts.

I think only girls that are "on the bubble" of being recruited will benefit from attending. Girls that are clearly destined to be recruited wil be recruited whether attening or not. If my daughter were among the better players in her age bracket I would rather spend the $700 visiting colleges whose team she possibly has a chance to make.

For MD girls, i completely agree. I can see some value for girls in non-hot spots who can benefit from exposure/film against better level competiton.

I definitely think these are all geared toward solid players in non hotspots who don't regularly get to compete with other top competition. These events allow them to compete with and other top players at their age groups for a day or 2. When in reality, our girls are doing that weekly in NGLL and at every tournament when they are playing in the top brackets. the top 4 teams in the AU futures play off games weren't any better than the top 4 teams in NGLL, and they were "all star" teams so to speak.

But how beneficial the experience is all depends on if top talent actually comes. Prior to recruiting ages, it seems like quite a few of these "best of" events ends up being a mixed bag. AU is a good example, they didn't have all the top talent you'll likely see competing for spots at UA or AS in a few years, and the teams were a combination of 28 and 29.

We are middle class parents. Our daughter played at a top club, went to public school, took AP courses, and was able to do well on her SAT’s. She never did UA or AS, but we did invest in training during the off season. Her
Coach stacked and was able to get a full ride (academic/athletic) for 3 of her 4 years. Look into STEM programs, Honor’s colleges etc. This is a lower D1 school that she attends.

Did we learn anything from the Chesapeake Invitational today? I thought it was interesting that Skywalkers went 1-2. Eagle Stix and M&D 3-0. Maybe M&D made the adjustments after a rough day last weekend.

I watched the 2028 Coppermine and Eagle Stix game and it lived up to the hype. Two great teams played really well. Eagle Stix won.

Nope! Hard to judge teams when their full rosters aren't available.

I think that while it's a nice advantage for the Baltimore area teams to have a lot of tournaments in the area; however, I think teams that travel from several states away like LI Yellowjackets, Eagle Stix, etc. come with their whole rosters while nearly all the local teams I see typically miss players in the summer/fall to soccer and other commitments.

Definitely noticed some trimmed down rosters this past weekend. One team that stood out was Crush...they only had 3 subs on the sideline. Not a surprise as some teams players were missing due to other commitments and a nasty virus (not Covid) going around.

Another team that stood out with a low roster was Coppermine. They played Eagle Stix with zero subs.

I’m not sure I agree with your premise. Teams from other areas have multiple sports players, sickness, etc. as well. The bottom line is that teams have to play and not look for excuses if they lose.

My premise is that when these teams travel to out of state tournaments, they always bring their full rosters.

Why would it be true that only Maryland teams have fall conflicts girls will skip lacrosse for? Girls play soccer and field hockey in other states. Also, in some NY schools girls can play up with high school teams as early as middle school and their seasons may still be ongoing.

I just think that when teams travel out of state, they tend to bring full rosters. Yesterday at the 2028 and 2029 levels at least most of the local squads were all missing 5 girls each and bringing up girls from their B squads vs. teams like Eagle Stix having rosters of 20.

Talked to a dad from Eagle stix and he said that you had to commit to only play Lacrosse if you wanted to be on the team due to so many out of state tournaments. Otherwise you had to choose another team.

I’m not sure I understand the point. Are you suggesting that this tournament wasn’t a true representation of the strength of the lacrosse team? It just sounds like an excuse to me. I seem to recall that Coppermine also didn’t have a full squad at the mid-Atlantic this summer, so they entered as some BS made up blue/black team so when they got beat they wouldn’t lose their #1 ranking. They did get beat then, and they just got beat again. A team is a team. If they’re missing players, they just have to have others step up.

That definitely makes sense. When you are paying all of that additional money in hotels and air fare, you want to know you are showing up with a full team

Queue the tiny violin playing for Coppermine making excuses of why they lost. Shocker

As usual there are different ways of interpreting raw data. Eagle Stix carries 20 girls (I am taking your word for this) and based on what I observed in their game with Coppermine the Eagle Stix coach played all of the girls for a substantial time. The effect is that often the team had 2nd or 3rd string girls playing against Coppermine’s 1st string team.

How many girls are on the rosters of Coppermine, M&D, Hero’s, etc?

I don’t know how many Eagle Stix or other out of state teams supporters read/comment on this blog. I say that because I don’t recall any comments offering excuses from out of state team supporters when their teams lose.

To be fair, it was the third game of the day and they had no subs. The girls were tired. Would it have been the same if Coppermine had been full strength like Eagle Stix? No idea.

For almost a month I read comments about how the teams added players and how much better they got. Suddenly they lose games and the blame is on the teams not having players. Seems the programs need to do a better job selecting players. Teams know well in advance what tournaments they have entered and to rationalize losses due to players playing other sports is laughable. Every team has the same risk of players missing games due to injury or sickness.

The bottomline is that the better teams won. Losses can't be justified by saying "if only we had different /other players we would have won. Citing "imaginary teams" only matters in one's imagination.

If a club cannot field a competitive team to play at the level that they aspire to, perhaps their aspirations are too high. Not having enough players is not a valid excuse. That’s the club’s problem. They should put a team together made of players who can commit to the team. Otherwise, the results will speak for themselves. But you can’t say “we would have won if only… “.

Thanks Hero's Dad for that insightful analysis. Maybe next tournament, Hero's will win a game.

23, 19, & 22 respectively

Thank you for the numbers of players. If Coppermine has 23 players and only 10 show up for tournament games, then Coppermine is a poorly run program. It's supporters should stop with the excuses and living in a dream world. If I were a parent of a Coppermine player that shows up for games I would be asking some serious quetions about the leadership of the program.

Also, someone said the Coppermine team had no players to substitute and its girls were tired. Why didn't the coach design a game plan that would slow the game down to accommodate the tired players? I watched the game against Eagle Stix and Coppermine was playing a fast paced offence.

I think at 9-1 in the fall tourney season so far, regardless of how many subs they had or didn't have means they are doing just fine.

They obviously had more than 10 show up and in the earlier two games they did have subs. Coppermine teams tend to have a lot of girls who play soccer, perhaps they're seen as a good destination for soccer players because they have a soccer club that many girls play for. Maybe that's why they increased their roster size so much. And considering that, I imagine some of the girls who were there welcomed the opportunity to get a lot of playing time against one of the best teams in the country. In the spring, the minutes are going to be in high demand.