US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Girls 2029 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

You have zero clue about SW and their reputation if that’s your stance. Look at the 8th grade thru 11th grade teams. They just don’t put as much emphasis on winning in elementary school. Which is fantastic imho.

The family that left did so because they were short sighted and that’s okay. That’s their choice. But you sound really ignorant with your assessment of SW.

The 2025 -2023 teams were good in elementary school but the younger teams are not. Keep wearing those rose colored glasses!

Agree that focusing more on development than winning in younger years is a good thing. You can see that as the Skywalkers teams get older they continue to improve (take the 27 team for example, who has been steadily improving). Some because of talent they have developed and some because their club continues to attract top talent.

Saying Skywalkers is a thing of the past is the company line with some other clubs (you know who you are) because they think the route to becoming a top club is to steal the talent that typically would have gone to Skywalkers. To some extent, they have succeeded. But Skywalkers is just fine, they develop good players, who go on to play well on their high school teams, and ultimately get their girls recruited.

I would put Skywalkers in 4th behind M&D Hero's MD United if you look at it top to bottom from 2023-2032. Skywalkers better than MDU as a whole in HS age groups, traditionally and at moment but MDU prob better at every age group under High School and in many grad years, by large margin.

I think Skywalkers continues to be a good option, but I'm not sure Coppermine and Skywalkers can both be great at same grad year.

Another opinion, SW as an entire club may be 4th or even lower in the area but they have slipped lower over the last 10 years and will slip further in the next 10 years.

"Some because of talent they have developed and some because their club continues to attract top talent." Exactly, for these younger teams to improve they will need to replace weaker players. Is your daughter a weaker player that will be replaced or a top player praying better players come to share the spotlight? Neither camp seems like a good spot.

Within the next year or two, the SW 2029 team will be just like the SW 27 team. Look where they were two years ago, probably in similar position as the SW 29 team is now. Yet, the SW 27 team has quickly become a top team. SW philosophy is more about HS and recruiting. They have a OUTSTANDING track record there. They just recently decided to have teams before 5th grade. That is what hurt them as they were losing the younger players to other clubs. But as was said earlier, they don't care about elementary and middle school wins. Their goal is develop the player to be good HS players and potential college players.

IMHO, the parent of this player who left SW is searching for wins and trophies for their child at age 11/12. If that's what matters to them, more power to them. However, them coming on here to try and tarnish SW to justify their move, laughable at best.

I also echo the one earlier post, if their child was that dominate, SW would have performed much better in the B division.

For what it's worth, my daughter plays on another top club not SW but, SW is 100% a real option if lacrosse is what she wants to do in HS and college. Because remember we are talking about 11/12 year old's who may hit puberty and no longer be interested in lacrosse or physically may not be able to play at a top level. But hey, jump ship to Heros to win now if 6th grade is going to be the highlight of your daughters lacrosse career. To each their own.

Skywalkers is in the B division? That is really surprising. Is that a normal thing for all their teams or just the weakest teams?

But this is true for every team, especially at the middle school years as they get closer high school. And especially at clubs with a good reputation for recruiting. It's just the name of the game.

SW is definitely trending downward and I don't know how anyone thinks their 29 squad is going to somehow improve into a top team. The girl left the 29 team because her development would be hampered if she stayed. She's not the first to leave for that reason.

SW Blue 27 was ranked in the 40s in 2022.
They are now 17th but closer inspection of their schedule reveals they have not had one quality win. They have been blowing out B teams.
Their marquee win was 13-6 over 22nd ranked Philly Blast.

Evidence of improvement over 2022? Yes, evidence of being a "top team". I wouldn't say that.

And they just came within a goal of beating the 27 M&D team in the indoor league.

Point being the OP about them falling off is a joke and lame excuse to jump clubs mid year. However, as one SW parent said, good riddance. Family seems to be an issue anyway.

Haha - indoor?

Are you trying to rile up the Coppermine parents again

1) Its indoor, no draws
2) Its indoor, refs can completely change the game
3) Its indoor, with M&D using a splitsquad.

I'm glad Skywalkers is improving, but that's not the flex you think it is. We need more competitive teams, especially after what happened to NEMS, Integrity and M&D Shore this fall.

We need less club teams... when 6th grade has 16 A teams and 20+ B teams, the pool is diluted. Unfortunately, money talks and everyone now thinks they are club level.

SW won't be a club in 5 years, much less 10. The quality is slipping quickly and they'll be missing the charismatic leader once he retires. I have no insider information but have heard enough rumors and see other previously top clubs getting sold that you have to assume this is coming soon.

Agreed, way too many club teams and now rec teams are essentially dead or its just a bunch of club girls playing on rec teams.

We need less club teams... when 6th grade has 16 A teams and 20+ B teams, the pool is diluted. Unfortunately, money talks and everyone now thinks they are club level.[/quote]

As a parent with much older children I actually agree that there’s too many club teams around Baltimore. And it’s destroyed All rec programs. Many girls in the B brackets would benefit from playing rec. but things have changed

My question is …. Would you be ok if your child wasn’t picked for the club team ? If there was only three really strong team in the Baltimore area would you be ok with your daughter not being picked ? Just look
How people carry on about under armour, American select, etc.. imagine if you couldn’t get yourself in to a club team anywhere. It would [Censored]. That’s why more club teams keep popping up. These girls want to play

As a parent with much older children I actually agree that there’s too many club teams around Baltimore. And it’s destroyed All rec programs. Many girls in the B brackets would benefit from playing rec. but things have changed

My question is …. Would you be ok if your child wasn’t picked for the club team ? If there was only three really strong team in the Baltimore area would you be ok with your daughter not being picked ? Just look
How people carry on about under armour, American select, etc.. imagine if you couldn’t get yourself in to a club team anywhere. It would [Censored]. That’s why more club teams keep popping up. These girls want to play[/quote]

You could go back to the old days where you have a conversation with your kid about working harder, trying out again next year, sign them up for rec, grab some ice cream and continue on being a CHILD. The sad reality is, parents can't accept it and clubs profit off the FOMO.

You could go back to the old days where you have a conversation with your kid about working harder, trying out again next year, sign them up for rec, grab some ice cream and continue on being a CHILD. The sad reality is, parents can't accept it and clubs profit off the FOMO.[/quote]

i can tell by your response that your child is on the team she wants to be on. Suppose someone works really hard and still doesn't make a team - then what ? I don't disagree with you about working hard and trying next year but girls want to play. And they want to play against the best competition. If the top girls play club everyone wants to. Theat's my point. Therein lies the problem.

People think the 27 team is "attracting top talent". But really they are picking up Hero's and M&D kids who were cut.

Skywalkers is ok. But their youth teams are bad

Seems like a weird time to add a new player at this point in the club season. Can’t imagine current parents are thrilled?

This is not true. 27 team added players from top teams who would have made their team again and played. Skywalkers is a good option for players not blinded by tshirts during middle school years and looking at the big picture. Far safer bet to move here than some other clubs who have absolutely no history of recruiting. Especially considering they do a good job with development, and by the time they all reach high school, there will be plenty of parity among these teams anyway.

My daughter loves tee shirts.

Couldn’t agree more. They have the track record and that is why top players from other clubs moved over. I can see the same thing happening over there next few years with the 2029s. Heros is good, M&D is good but I can see SW jumping Coppermine and MDU over the next few years. All it takes is a few kids who are tired of their club for whatever reason to jump.

You must be joking??? The 2029 SW team stinks, there is zero chance of them passing Coppermine or MDU. SW messed up and didn’t recognize the change in landscape, and Coppermine has almost all of the girls that would have gone to SW in years past. The 2029 team is #7, the 2028 team is #1, and the 2030s will be a top 10 team too; their top players are not leaving to go play for a SW program that got substantially worse with the younger teams. And Coppermine and especially MDU have a history of getting kids to top level schools too, so again, those kids are not going anywhere. Face it, SW is not going to be what it used to be.

There will only be the same old 3 clubs at the top? What makes you think that SW will jump ahead at the 29 group? MDU and Coppermine are light years ahead of SW at the 28 group and nothing is changing there. Why would the 29s be any different?

I think you are forgetting how geography plays a role here.

Skywalkers pulls from the same area as Coppermine and vice versa.

MD United doesn't really fight those two clubs for players, but do with Integrity, LBC and CCLax.

M&D and Hero's, because they are so centralized has the ability to pull from all over, which is part of the success.

Sure there are ouliers, kids coming from say Eastern Shore to M&D, it happens but just rare.

Disagree slightly, SW pulls from everywhere like M&D while Heros is majority HOCO and now Frederick area.

i can tell by your response that your child is on the team she wants to be on. Suppose someone works really hard and still doesn't make a team - then what ? I don't disagree with you about working hard and trying next year but girls want to play. And they want to play against the best competition. If the top girls play club everyone wants to. Theat's my point. Therein lies the problem.[/quote]

Again, than maybe that kid is not a club player. Wanting to play against top competition versus being able to are two different things. But you just illustrated perfectly the problem. Parent is upset, club sees 50 kids at tryout and knows parents with their parent goggles on will pay several thousand dollars to be on a B team and thus another club team is created. Don't make that B team, no worries, another smaller club will take you. And boom we have 40 2029 club teams in 6th grade.

Keep up the good work at the younger ages Coppermine. Meaning 28 and 29s. Your 27 team is... oh right 2-7 this fall. Ranked 35th, behind SW. Your 2030 and 2031 non existent in NGLL last year. Not even competitive. Oh and adding Coppermine East, West, Central, North, Southwest, Middle East... you are only diluting your own brand

Lastly, I checked the top recruits for the, '23, '24 and '25 class. From the mid Atlantic I see a bunch of M&D, SW and some Heros. Not on the list.... Coppermine and MDU. But I get it you need to sell the program! Especially given the splendid reputation given what I see here on the forum.

A division this year. They also have a B team at this age group.

Cool story! But the 2029 SW is simply not good and has no chance at catching the teams above them. They were too slow to realize the threat the Coppermine became, and almost all of the good young players in the area will play with Coppermine.

Someone better tell Cathy Reese she doesn't know how to judge talent as she has a MDU 2023 commit.

Again, hung up on the 2-7 record for Coppermine 2027. They are a solid team. They have a track record.

i can tell by some of these replies are being sold on "rankings" that your 2029 is your oldest kid. You'll figure it out eventually.

Here's also something to track. A lot of those M&D high ranked players, weren't on M&D before 9th grade, in fact, some aren't even from the state of Maryland. They were developed by other clubs and coaches. This of course also means many of those M&D players who spent years pre HS were replaced.

That's the true reality of elite clubs. Same thing over there on Yellow Jackets. Keep this in mind as you navigate club scene. Go to where your kid is going to get developed. Pretty clear which programs have been doing that for years.

SW is a good change for many because of their philosophy on parents not coaching their daughter's teams, and their track record of holding on to high quality coaches. Many of their coaches have been there for years and have coached HS State Championship teams, coach at top IAAM A schools, coached internationally, etc. All while being very connected to the college recruiting scene. Not to say that isn't the case at M&D or Heros, but many of the other clubs lack this, and lose players because of it as they age.

Cool story as you would say bhahaha

So, wins loses and rankings matter for your 28 and 29s but not 24s,25s,26s,27s... sell the koolaid!! Clown car still hasn't left the station.

Players move on after middle school. Concentrate on other sports. Most of the top teams in this area added players from weaker teams. Lots of out of state kids coming to Md teams to play with top talent. I see kids from Va , Michigan , Carolina , Colorado all coming here to get better development and understanding of the game. Heros had a girl from Florida a couple years back too. Players get replaced when they get passed on the production line. Same at every club. Sw has some good coaches but very few that have coached at a high level.

LOL