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

Stress fundamentals? Come on. This SW team has been outmatched for years, nothing to do with the playing style. At one point, I assumed they were going to move into the fifth best team in area but clearly not happening.

Out of State players flocking to SW is a thing of the past. Girls did that when the Baltimore area was the best option for them to compete with the best. Now the girls can play for a more local team (TX, GA, FL, CO, etc.) and they travel to Tournaments together whether on the East Coast or anywhere else. Yes they have lots of alumnae but have been around the longest. Other clubs are creating more options now. Plenty of other teams also teaching fundamentals but also winning as a team which shows me they are learning something important- how to play as a team. SW is a great program but just not as relevant as they once were.

Not even close to true. They stress nothing except trying to win. Find the best athletes and let them play Street ball now. High school teams are solid but have a style that won’t benefit all in high school. The director sits in a chair now. The lady isn’t a great coach. The alumni were good players but are just subbers on the sideline. Coppermine and Nems are grinding away and will get more with less than sw middle school teams. The 27 coach can only win when handed talent and didn’t dominate with the 22 team.

Same thing was said about the 2026 team.

SW will be a top 3 or 4 mid Atlantic program in sophomore year when it counts. Just watch. Reality is that at least half of the girls on their current team won't be there in two years. Just the way competitive clubs works

For those that disagree, please answer me this. If you are/were the parent of a D-1 caliber girl who just wasn't quite good enough to make Heros Green, M&D Black or Capital Blue, what club will you want your daughter playing for during the recruiting process?

Over the next year (maybe two), I expect them to pick up a few girls who get cut/don't play from Heros or M&D Black, a couple of the stars from Heros White/M&D Red and a few BLC girls. And one of the out of state 24s has a younger sister who is a 27 who is supposed to be even better than her sister. And most of these girls will probably start.

Plenty of SW alumni playing in that Maryland vs Northwestern game!

Interesting notes for the upcoming weekend. And as per usual, lots of rain is expected.

Coppermine has 2 tough games this weekend against MDU and BLC. If they drop both, does 5-3 still get them into the playoffs? Probably so.

M&D has 3 games this weekend. I assume based on 2 rainouts. The game against BLC should be the game of the weekend.

Hero's White will probably fall to M&D. But then finish against Stars. A 6-2 season is pretty strong regardless of competition. They should be a top 5 seed going into the playoffs

Pride has played well enough to get into the playoffs. Interested to see how they play against NEMS. Need to make a statement. A NEMS win gives them an unexpected route to a playoff spot. Although NEMS has to play Hero's as well. After losing 3 tops scorers, this would be a fantastic story. Good for NEMS.

If not NEMS...who grabs the final playoff spot?

Still head scratching that SW is not in the conversation. With so many playoff spots available, they only had to get into top 8. Huge meltdown.

We shall see. But there's a BIG difference between the two: 26 team was in the B division while the 28 team is a dominant A league team - and only getting better!

Yeah, whoever said alumni are subbers on the sideline is just trying to slander. There are so many former Skywalkers players having success in college, currently and in the past.

How much of SW pre-HS teams not competing is related to Coppermine? Was Coppermine around years ago when SW was dominating?

CCLax is 3-3, will beat MC Elite and set the stage for a showdown with Pride, does 5-3 get CClax in?

Quite possible.

Interesting that all the Coppermine teams are so much stronger in NGLL - I think parents look and care about rankings and wins now that more information is available. So another example how Skywalkers didn’t adapt.

Skywalkers is a Blockbuster but Coppermine is Netflix.

Will be an interesting matchup. A very good defense with limited settled play offensive options (CCLax) vs a good thats great on the draw and offense, but with a rather weak defense.

I think Pride will still win, but I also think it will be close than many folks think. If CCLax can get close to half the draws, they have a chance.

Did I miss the announcement from Crush that they will start having high school teams in two years? If they are serious about it, they need to announce before the next tryout season to preserve their top talent.

I would love to see another top Maryland club, but it doesn't look like Crush is interested in that. Which is fine, but they owe the parents a clear message over the direction of the club.

Whatever happens, hopefully it is done with more integrity and class than the way the 26 and 27 teams folded.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Coppermine started around 2016-2018. They also start young for their teams. I think they attract a lot of younger kids which does compete with SW and made TLC basically obsolete now. Their older HS teams had a harder time retaining the top talent because of tournaments they were being left out of however they are now being invited so girls that want to be recruited can be seen. They put a lot of kids in college but due their past inability to retain the top girls they are mostly at programs outside the top college teams. However that should change as they retain their top talent. That definitely has had an impact on the SW teams from the 27’s - 31’s. I don’t believe Coppermine 27’s to date have left for SW. I know some have left for M&D in past years though. They 28 team is #1 and 27 definitely competes with any team outside the Top 3.

To answer the question posed, if it was 2018, SW definitely. In 2023, Coppermine. This is clear to everyone involved except the SW gang.

OK, Uncle Rico.

How many players from Coppermine or NEMS are playing varsity for SPSG or MCD?

Coppermine is so desperate to take Skyalkers place that they will say anything on these forums. They do believe they are
Why would the answer be Coppermine with absolutely no recruiting history whatsoever? By recruiting years, NGLL will be a distant memory and Skywalkers will be a better team (just as good as Coppermine), playing in all the necessary tournaments with a good club reputation and connections to boot. Coppermine's determination to talk down Skywalkers in and effort to take their place as a club is so obvious.

I'll answer that question too. Because while it's not as obvious to the first time middle school parents, high-level D1 colleges recruit primarily on speed and athletic ability. Fundamentals are also expected to be very good. The best players at middle school are by and large going to be the best players coming out of HS in the recruiting years (there are obviously exceptions in both directions). The club doesn't matter as much as the old legacy clubs like to imply. The top colleges are going to find the top players, no matter where they are. Coppermine is a big program, so it's not exactly like the colleges have to do a lot of digging to find them. They're all on Sportsrecruits. Right now at all MS and younger years, the top players are at Coppermine, and there is no longer any need to leave for HS. It's not any more complicated than that.

Any other questions?

Yes, do you honestly believe at the MS level, 27-29, the “top players” are at Coppermine?

All of them? No. Between SW, Coppermine, and NEMS which I believe were originally being discussed, yes. Even more so at the ages below that.

You could put 5 new elite players on the SW team. I promise the team would not become elite with the current coaching. Look at any pro team in literally any sport....a team with all the studs and bad coaching equals under achievement. Never fails.

I think a major issue is the experienced coach is coaching High School, and appears to be having a pretty good year. I hope she'll be there more after the HS season. If she isn't, I can't see Mike and Molly keeping it the way it is.

Not true. Midwest (Ohio, Michigan) have always been the source of most of SW's out of state players. And those states don't have a single top 100 girls program. Probably the best player on SW 24s in from Michigan and one of the 3 or 4 best players on the 26s is from Ohio.

The only reason SW may have fewer out of state players is that the top Long Island programs, especially Top Guns, has started recruiting top out of state players.

Either the wrong things are being coached or coaching is just being ignored. Watched the end of their game a few weeks ago. On at least 2/3 of their clear attempts a defenders tried to run the ball through traffic instead of quickly passing the ball to an open teammates.

On most SW teams, a defender would be immediately benched if they did that more than once.

I get it. This is a Coppermine board under the premise of objectivity. Word is 3 of the Coppermine girls are going to try out for SW next year. The best part is "it's a secret." As long as they don't come to my team with these parents that need affirmation, more power to them. But, as another poster said, if the coaching doesn't change, they'll be in the same spot...except they'll also have more, ultra crappy parents to deal with. And no, Coppermine doesn't have anymore stars than NEMS or SW.

Love when I always see all the best girls will leave for SW every year like the quote about how 3 of Coppermine’s this year (but it’s a secret so don’t tell anyone). However I haven’t seen it yet. SW got a couple from a failed TLC, girls cut from other Top teams and a couple from Hero’s for their own personal reasons. Got to ask why? Coppermine seems well coached and have yet to lose to SW so why would girls jump ship to one that can’t beat them? Are issues there that I may not be aware of or my friend there does mention to me? If we lived closer we pick Coppermine over SW based on current teams.

Sounds like a SW parent just trying to stir the pot because knows SW is in trouble after this year.

If I had to guess who the players are not properly running a clear, it's the players of the parents on this board claiming the coaches don't know what they are doing. So they tell their kid "just use your wheels, your coach doesn't know how fast you are. Show them." Everyone knows better and their kids fail miserably. This 27 SW team is a mess and the parents are to blame. It was a mess before the "new coach" arrived. It's her first year, no? I've seen it first hand and it always ends with the better coaches leaving to coach a team willing to buy in and play a team game. The poster before this one said it best, their best coach is a HS coach first and the parents don't like that. With that said, before you go running your mouth, you may want to check out her resume, not sure you will find a better coach (better yet, some kids parent if we are talking about Coppemine being the other option) to run to. Well, I take that back, you may find a "better" coach who will put up with your BS.

It gets harder and harder to make the switch to a top team by 8th grade. My daughter tried out for one of the "top 2 teams" last summer. And I thought she was good enough to make it. But she didn't.

Not bitter at all. I appreciate the loyalty and wish we had tried to make the jump sooner. It sounds like by 8th grade (and certainly 9th), that as long as you are a good kid and your parents are not insufferable, that they will keep the kid they know before adding an unknown quantity.

With that being said, we considered trying out for SW as well. She would have made SW for sure based on what I have seen on the field. But I am almost glad we didn't. As her current team is going to make the playoffs. But I have no ill will towards SW. She has a few friends that play for them. And they seem happy (despite the results this year)

Sometimes the grass isn't always greener I guess.

More like a SW parent who know their kid will be cut after this year. If you kid is one of the 6 or 7 players on the SW bench who doesn't or barely plays, you should start looking for a new club now. (Same thing goes if you don't play for Coppermine)

This summer will be unlike many in the past due to amount of talent in NoVA, DC and Montgomery Country area.

There will be a TON of D-1 quality kids from Stars, BLC and Pride who don't make Capital who will be looking for new homes this summer. I would expect SW, Coppermine, MDU ALL to upgrade their talent as a result. (And this doesn't even count some of the best players from Hero's White or M&D red who could easily make a second tier A team.)

We can argue about who of those 3 clubs will get the most new players, but it is a certainty that all 3 will get significantly better.

I wouldn't put Stars in the same category as BLC or Pride. If all 3 of those teams sent all of their players together to Capital for a tryout, the team would be almost entirely made up of BLC and Pride kids.

And anyone who didn't make Capital would certainly NOT upgrade a team that already has some talent.

If you don't make Capital....my guess is you certainly are not a D-1 prospect.

NGLL 2027 Week 5 2023

Pride with huge weekend, can go 6-2 or 4-4. End of day, only two respectable losses (HG & MDU) but some close wins to teams they shoulda won big against.




Hero's 2027 white M&D 2027 Black
M&D -14

MC Elite Midnight Integrity 2027 Green
Int -12

Maryland United 2027 Coppermine 2027 Black
MDU -3.5

Maryland United 2027 FCA 2027 Blue
MDU -9

NEMS 2027 PRIDE 2027 RED
Pride -3

NEMS 2027 Hero's 2027 green
HG -13

BLC 2027 Blue M&D 2027 Black
M&D -3.5

M&D 2027 Black Renegades 27
M&D -15

BLC 2027 Blue FCA 2027 Blue
BLC -12

Renegades 27 Integrity 2027 Green
Int -4

Coppermine 2027 Black BLC 2027 Blue
BLC -6.5

Next Level 2027 Blue Hero's 2027 green
HG -18

MC Elite Midnight CCLax 2027 Black
CCL -9

STARS 2027 Light BLue Hero's 2027 white
HW -3.5

MC Elite Midnight STARS 2027 Light BLue
Stars -4

CCLax 2027 Black PRIDE 2027 RED
Pride -3.5

Gimme Hero's White ÷ 14. Against M&D. Hero's will keep it to 6 or 7

Also, gimme BLC ÷3.5 against M&D. BLC always plays them super close. BLC will win that game

"My friend there." Stop. It's you. You're the fool behind the curtain, the curtain and the clown dancing on the stage. Let's wait and see. Tryouts are only a few months away. The odds guys would be great here. You'll lose a few of your girls trying to go elsewhere, mainly SW. That is, unless the parents are actually lying.

I’ve watched these teams for years, M&D by far with the best defense at 2027. I expect them to give BLC problems, draw will be big. I can see a tight one.

I would be surprised if HW kept it that close, they have not played challenging teams this season and are barely beating them. M&D is much stronger.

Can you make it any more obvious you're on the Coppermine bandwagon? The top MS and younger players are at Coppermine? That's just completely false. What would Hero's, M&D, and MU have to say about that? That's hilarious.