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

That was a tough game for M&D against Skywalkers. Lost a really good defender to another ankle injury (not saying turf was the culprit but...) and yes, that was a downright awful play with a severe crosscheck to the face. Should have been a red card. Some hits are tough. But that one was brutal.

What about the M&D mom that thinks every call should go M&D’s way? Someone needs to muzzle her.

I know the girl who did the hit, wasn’t intentional and came off the field asking if girl was ok post game. She wasn’t fast enough on slide and missed girls body

So you are saying M&D has the only mom or dad that complains? Got it.

For anyone that constantly complains about call I’ll gladly pay for them to get ref certified, it’s a thankless job and there is a huge shortage because of parents

Also college coaches don’t give a flying F about who wins/loses and more importantly aren’t watching 27s until fall 2024

missed it my 2 feet vertically??? Sorry, but there is never a situation where the shaft of the stick should be paralell and above shoulder level.

I'll trust you that it wasn't an intent to intentionally injury. But you don't just randomly cross-check to the head without it either being 1) taught of 2) tolerated.

Actually, I am even more upset by the fact that the girl was put right back in the game when her two minutes was done. I think most coaches would either sit someone for the rest of the day or rest of the tourney after a shot like that.

No coach wants to see a girl get hurt or be girl down for a few mins

She slid late and I think it was a combo of her being high and girl w ball ducking, either way it was ugly hit

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]L4C takeaways



Early on in the SW/M&D game I saw one of the dirtiest plays I've ever seen in girls lax. #1 on M&D took a running cross check to the head and got knocked out of the game. I was worried the girl wouldn't get up. If there is ever a case for a red card in girls lax, that is it.


It was a cross crease slide and the two collided. It was the farthest thing from a dirty play. Momentum of two players working in opposite directions.

There was a lot of rough play and when that happens, things can escalate and injuries occur. In the games we watched, it felt like the refs were letting the girls play and it was a lot more physical than my daughter's team was used to. Definitely a difference in the way games are called from what we typically see here in MD.

I will say in 99% of cases, there is no ill intention or dirty play. You have girls who are ultra-competitive and they go hard. Of course, all of the armchair parents who are expert referees take to complaining and like to accuse 14-year-olds of playing dirty.

I think there is a big difference between girls intentionally trying to injure someone vs. a coach encouraging dangerous play. Girls plays how they are coached over the past year, 3 years, 10 years. I blame coaches for most bad fouls which cause injuries not the girls themselves.

Def just a late slide with a standing-height check against a ducking-height dodge. No ill intent. If that's one of the dirtiest plays you have ever seen in girls lax, you have not seen much girls lax. OR... hear me out, you aren't able to identify dirty plays.

They will fall out in a couple weeks when USCL increases minimum game requirement to 12.

Didn’t know this was a thing but that’s great to hear.
Should make it 20

Hopefully the M&D player apologizes for putting her face near the Skywalkers girls stick. How irresponsible of her.

The hit topic has run its course. Jury says bad hit, not intentional and ref handled on field with a card.

It is interesting point about Coppermine. They do win with relatively average-to-slightly-above-average play (for good md teams), but I haven't seen any big team bracketing for them yet. I do believe they get some tough teams at genesis this weekend, so we will see.

BLC is just a slightly more talented Coppermimlne, SW, Pride.

Anyone who isn't HG, M&D Aces are hamstrung by simply not having the same level of talent at every position on the field. I'm not saying the other teams have no talent, but the #6-30 teams have anywhere from 1/5 to 2/3rds the level of talented players as the top 5.

Talent hoarding will dissipate this coming year because most kids are going to want to position themselves to be on the field, as opposed to practice development as the approach post freshman presophmore seasons.

HG and M&D have kids who are not stars on that team but would be on other teams. It will be interesting to see if any of them move on to be showcased a bit more.

Anyone happen to watch Jesters this weekend and find their players and parents on even higher levels of rough play, yelling and moaning than what you expected even from Long Island teams?

Jesters solid team, not great scorers but they will run you over on defense and illegal check and push until the refs force them to stop.

Coaches should flag concerns about illegal play before the game and let them call it tight to set the tone

BLC is just a slightly more talented Coppermimlne, SW, Pride

Skywalker can't touch BLC, Coppermine or Pride... yet. Why are they even in the conversation at this point?... because its the big 3. (yawn) I'm not anti- SW, but game scores dictate still irrelevant at this point.

Its hard to buy that Coppermine is average when they continue to consistently make playoffs and pool plays. They lose a lot of games by 1 (MDU and BLC a couple of times); which is interesting. Seems to me they are easily top 15-13 team and way above average athletes. I think they lack the race horses in the midfield and some grit. That seems to be where all the top 10 teams pull away. I'd put their defense up against anyone. Seem inconsistent but I'd predict highly recruitable since they are athletic and well coached.

Maybe spring scores, but def not them summer scores. Skywalkers beat Pride last weekend, so to say they can’t touch them is a little off. And they beat or tied teams ranked higher than Coppermine the weekend before, as well as losing to BLC by one at the play day.

The Copp parents coming on here bashing SW on all age groups is getting old. SW will be fine, and I would expect them to beat Copp in the next year, when it really counts. But thanks, Coppermine dad for your insightful analysis.

Pretty accurate overall, how bout MD with three of the final four. Not a bad showing even if Aces did win it all.

Exactly. No matter how old and out of touch the SW owner gets, and no matter how many well-run and well-capitalized clubs form in the same geographic area, SW has the golden touch and will live on as a top-tier club for eternity.

The thing about Coppermine at this age group is that due to their style, they play a lot of low scoring 6-5 kinda games. This often means they sticking around against much better teams but not blowing out teams who are much worse.

Pride on the other hand, which lots of options on offense but (to be kind) a defense with some opportunities tends to play lots of high scoring games which can create a bit more variance in the results.

Summer Genesis predictions.

Always tough because the playoffs spots always come down to tiebreakers

A/B divisions

Astonishing: 1) Aces 2) M&D
Breathtaking 1) Eagle Stix Grey 2) Sky walkers

M&D gets revenge and plays Aces in the finals


C/D/E/F divisions. (A complete crapshoot)


Semis: Common Goal over 315; M&D Shore over VA Metro
Finals: Shore over Common Goal

Nailed it. Very insightful analysis and very accurate.

Not a fan of how the Summer Genesis does their playoffs. Uneven schedules will keep good teams out, meanwhile, the lamb of Breathtaking will go to slaughter.

There is a TON of talent from multiple clubs showing up every week at Skywalkers, they’ll be more than fine.

Not sure why Coppermine parents have such a chip on their shoulders, it’s a well run and coached program and they have some solid younger teams, especially the 28s.

The fact that Coppermine isn't the top club in Maryland (and top 3 in the country) by now, is actually kind of surprising. No other club has, large well-turfed indoor facilities, well-turfed/lighted outdoor facilities, and top notch weight/fitness rooms at their disposal along with what seems like endless funding, which should attract top coaches. Coppermine is not the new kid on the block any more and they still run neck and neck with SW depending on the year and don't touch M&D (who now has capital but no permanent facilities) or Hero's (who doesn't have a large private investor or permanent facilities).

Skywalkers are inconsistent week to week, even game to game but had some really nice recent blowouts wins over pride and prime time plus a tie vs steps.

They add some pieces watch out

Very valid points but they aren’t even close to skywalker in regards to recruiting. They aren’t even nems, Will they get there? Maybe

The women's lacrosse world is so small, it takes one high(ish) profile recruiting coordinator hire to get them moving in the right direction.

I still think SW not having parents coach their daughter, especially at the HS level, is a great selling point. I don't understand why the other clubs don't see this and make it a rule, instead of an exception.

I think it would make it harder to find coaches who knew they wouldn't be able to at least be there watching their kid play?

Except that they are sharing them with a bunch of other Coppermine rec leagues and clubs. Often there are 3 Coppermine lax teams sharing the same remote field at their complex.

Not sure how you don’t consider them top 3. They are ranked 1 in 2028, ranked 4th in 2029 and their 31s made it to the NGLL finals. The 27s are their lowest ranked team, and still in the top 20.

I'm not as on board for the glowing support of SW, but this mostly accurate. Good, well-known organization with some down years. Still gets attention and gate, will still have its "cycle up" years. People do trust the org as far as recruiting. As far as I've seen, the M&D, SW, HG Jr's and Sr's teams are always 👌, always with major recruiting above and beyond the test of the fray.

I also agree Coppermine's status (or lack of) is surprising. However the 28s and time will likely prove slow and steady growth for sure. As mentioned earlier, Coppermine has the foundation for being a great organization (fields, facilities).

It will also be interesting to see how PE and corporate (and maybe nil) money comes into play with lax. Especially so with Rabil really pushing lax into the mainstream.

Because you are forgetting their older teams. 27s are not their lowest ranked team, the 24s are. Those older teams still matter when looking at a club as a whole, something Copp parents seem to forget.

Coppermine parents only look at 9th grade and below apparently but completely ignore high school and recruiting

Coppermine was smart by going young following the soccer model and grabbed a ton of talent. Problem is, a lot of those kids will burn out like soccer and other programs also went younger and have teams down to second grade which is also insane.

Until they have a 5-8 years of top 20 teams that actually get recruited by major programs. They aren’t a top tier team

The 23s were their 1st ever team, so the fact that they have been able to build top younger teams that plan to remain through HS is a huge accomplishment. They are playing in the top tournaments in the top brackets and recruiting will happen as a result and with some of the coaches they are bringing in (M&D 24).

As someone who has been through the process multiple times, most of this chatter about Coppermine and future recruiting is much ado about nothing.

Kids get themselves recruited, not the coaches. They need to write the emails, send the highlight reels and perform in front of coaches.

If a team is routinely playing in one of the top 3 brackets in major tourneys, they will get in front of pretty much every D1 and high D3 coach in the country. Then it's only the coaches to put the kids in a situation to showcase talents in front of coaches.

The #1 team in the nation does play in front of more D1 coaches than the #25 team. The top coaches will watch both of those teams at every tourney they are in.

After that, it's up to the kids to perform.

Coppermine does this well. If I had to nitpick, the only real thing I would change for Coppermine is to get into G8, which from my experience is the best recruiting event of the Summer season.

The big value from recruiting directors is being able to give top kids early feedback before Sept. 1 so they know which prospect days to attend.

Now for kids without D1 talent or on club teams who don't play in top brackets, club relationships can mean more since a lot more recruiting is not done in person due to more limited budgets.

Added competition and parity is a good thing.

The girls don’t care once in high school what club you’re on, only the parents really care. Find then best fit for your daughter and let them be happy