US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Girls 2027 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Coppermine will be tier 4. Move M&D shore and NEMS to tier 5. Pride is border line 2/3

Agree that MDU is much closer to Tier 1 than Tier 3. They are very good.

I also think Stars will be much improved.

This is why we play the games. To shut up the doubters and naysayers. Let go underdogs!!!!

Everyone is always tough and confident until they get that 17-1 beat down. Although I must agree a good underdog story is good for the game.

4 of those 5 losses were by 2 or less goals. They’ve only gotten stronger over the last year.

I would put Pride into same tier as MDU. Pride has good size or least they did last time I saw them but this is 8th grade, lots of changes physically to these kids in short period of time.

The strength of Pride is its draw team. They will probably win more than 50% vs almost any NGLL team. There have 3 good big attackers and one super quick very small one -- very strong unit.

Their problem is defense. Only one solid defender and a few are very poor. Even their top middies don't play solid defense. You can't consistently win like this.

They make pull an upset or play a top 4 team close by winning 80% of draws, but this isn't sustainable. If they were to play MDU, I would make MDU at least a 4 goal favorite, probably more.

I think Stars will be better, but there was a major gap against Tier 3 to begin with. Not sure how adding a few Pride bench players was suddenly going to make them competitive.

I really don't understand folks who think Stars can suddenly compete with the top 10 or so teams. Looking at their Fall, they had one quality win -- over Limitless who isn't exactly a powerhouse

The weird thing about Pride is which team is going to show up? I've seen them look very good and very bad. Sometimes all in the same weekend? They have a few very good players though. Agree defense is a problem. Their goalie is pretty good though.

Not that impressed with MDU. They don’t win big games and always have an excuse. Fall not that impressive.

The narrative on Stars is that the St. Stephens coach (she’s a big deal in VA, but not sure MD folks have ever heard of her) took over the team. She is a good coach, but not sure she can take a B team and make them an A in one season. Seems like pretty lofty expectations. Guess we’ll find out….

It also means that she will start favoring the girls who may play for her in high school. works both ways. Agree she is a good coach, but you can only cook with the groceries you have

Curious what a ‘B’ team is? Outside top 10,15,20?

In theory, an "A" team is elite. In the country, there are probably no more than 10-12 teams that fit this profile. "B" would probably be the next 13-35 teams.

People want to say "my kid plays A". So even though their team may not be A, they are classified that way. Just because they choose to play in an "A" bracket.

Locally, there are probably 7 or 8 teams that truly play "A" even though a few of them are never going to challenge for a championship in a full field tournament.

M&D
Heros
BLC
MDU
Pride
SW
Coppermine

Every now in then, you will see M&D Shore, Integrity, NEMS and teams of the like play "A" brackets. But it's just in name. They would not compete for a championship if the top 3 or 4 teams are there. With that being said, when you put together a tournament and you need to fill out an "A" bracket, you need teams. So even though they are not top teams, they still play "A"

Fall not that impressive? How many teams have 2 wins and a tie against three of the top seven teams in rankings?

Not to mention a one goal and two goal loss to two others.

Stars is a B team because they play in B brackets in tournaments. Unless it's a small tourney or Stars wins their B/C grouping, you will never see an M&D or BLC for example playing Stars because they will never run into them. Not a knock on Stars, just saying... I'm only speaking about the 27's. Stars 26's were actually pretty good though.

They are in NGLL A this spring so decent chance at least one of them will play them...

Its less about rating and more about which brackets you play in.

From my perspective, if you play in the top 2 brackets in the major tourneys -- Lax For the Cure, Summer Genesis, G8, Mid Atlantic, Maryland Cup (for older teams) -- you are an A team. Generally this is most of the top 20 in the rankings, plus a few others (Coppermine, HHH, Monster) who take their chances against better comp.

Stars is for sure a B team and the pipeline with SSSA is fading fast. They will never compete with the top clubs like M&D, Hero's, MDU, SW.

Pride is well coached and everyone is pretty good, no studs. They have a tall / strong girl who does draw and they dominate that pet of the game.

As Someone noted , by 8th grade most kids catch up so size won’t be a huge factor

Offensively they are as good as anyone and their starting goalie is very good. This is the reason their core group won the 4v4 at UNC Camp this December beating teams from lots of top 10 clubs. But until their defense catches up, they won't push the top 4 teams.

If their draw team is on fire, they can compete with anyone in a one-off game. But against top teams, even if they win 60% of draws, their defense will bite them.

I love these vague categories like "truly play A". Half of the clubs on this list bounce around from grad year to grad year, yet you list them in a group with M&D & Heroes. M&D, Heroes, and most likely Coppermine post 27s compete at the top of every age group in top tournaments. Coppermine is certainly headed in that direction despite the haters. MDU bounces around from year to year, Pride dissolves after 8th grade, BLC is spotty at best and SW is done after the 2025 age group despite the super accurate fall rankings. Some teams listed as not being "Truly A" have teams still playing that routinely beat all the teams on your list depending on the grad year, but the grad years from those teams certainly vary more than the others.

If your kid is on a team in the A bracket, they are playing against A talent, seeing how they size up, and have to live with the results. There are plenty of kids happy playing with friends on those teams, winning their fair share, and learning where they need to improve. Those teams have plenty of top talent that get recruited to top schools. It's definitely less than M&D & Heroes, but the kids apparently don't feel the need drive an extra hour each way to practice in order to win every game in youth lacrosse.

Credit to Coppermine. They play in top brackets even when there talent doesn't merit it.

where are the schedules

They updated locations, so hopefully schedules coming soon.

Initial drafts sent to directors -- my guess is early versions will be shared to some teams today. Likely many requests for change so probably not released until next week at the earliest.

Schedules posted....

Very watered down for top teams. With 18 teams, a lot of the heavy hitters aren't playing each other.

M&D's schedule looks difficult.

I don't think any of the top teams schedules are overly tough. At least by rankings standards. But anything can happen.

M&D should be playing Hero's before MC Elite and Next Level. Those games won't be fun for anyone involved.

Does there seem to be an unusually high number of double headers to anyone?

BLC at least has 2 tough games. Hero's and M&D only have 1. Obviously they would make playoffs no matter what. But would have been nice to see the 2 best teams playing each other.

I’m not sure HG and M&D has played an NGLL game in regular season in years.

What do you define as “tough game”?

If HG plays anyone outside of BLC and M&D, it’s not tough?

HG has to play on eastern shore in early AM game against M&D Shore who get to roll out of bed and go to fields, then they have to play a fresh MDU a few hours later. I think you should evaluate your logic.

Laying the drama on a little thick aren't we?

It's Shore. Not Boston College. Good try though

just took an initial look at the schedule.

Initial thoughts

Very even and well balanced unless you are Next Level. Interesting how some teams got multiple double headers while others got none.


easiest schedule -- Coppermine
hardest schedule -- Next Level by far, then BLC

Prediction Finish

1) HG 8-0
2) M&D 8-0
3) MDU 7-1
4) BLC 6-2
5) Pride 6-2
6)

The Coppermine/ SW game will likely determine last playoff spot on 4/24.

The bracket is no longer on tourney but this morning showed an 8 team playoff…

Last time I checked LBC made it to semi-finals last year while MDU played to a draw vs HG a few months ago.

Renegades beat Coppermine during the summer…

Hopefully M&D Shore will decide to play the entire game this year.