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

Coppermine is not "new " to the scene (been around for some time) but are becoming more relevant. They still have alot to do in my opinion but they are defiantly working hard on making themselves a top 5 program.

QUOTE:
"A small club like NEMS with its limited resources and without a strong recruiting director was never going to keep its best kids. Same reason clubs like Renegades, CCLax, Integrity, etc lose kids. Nothing against the clubs themselves, but by 7th/8th grade talented kids who want to play in college go to places with recruiting track records.

As competition for D1 lax spots intensifies, I would expect to be even more consolidation to top programs."

Who is writing this stuff?

Has to be noobs.

Those saying how NEMS and other small clubs can't place girls in good D1 programs is completely ignoring reality.

That NEMS 24 team is a perfect example. They have at least 10 D1 players. Maybe more. With kids going to U Maryland, UMBC, Old Dominion, Coastal, Carolina, Cincinatti, Ohio State.

Coppermine has probably moved into the Top 5 in Maryland, but they still have a long way to go. They have 1 great team and 2 better than average teams at best. The 29 team was weakened. Time will tell how it plays out with the other teams outside the 28 team.

No they haven't.

Stop encouraging the Coppermine dad.

29 team lost one player. Ex coaches kid is not gonna hurt. They will be fine.

Two, and the second one was their best player.

Facts hurt

Coppermine (as a whole) won't be a top MD club until they can prove that they can send at least 10 kids per year D1. To be fair to them, they won't get a chance to prove this for 2 or 3 years, but until then they shouldn't be compared at a total club level to the other four.

Admittedly, there is 28 team is outstanding and 27s and 29s are above average, but recruiting is where top clubs prove themselves.

Let's also remember that 5 years ago, C2 and Elite were both top 5 middle school clubs.

Who is Elite?

Coppermine bought Elite. Elite's 2023 top team was like the Crush 2028 team- an outlier. Coppermine needs to work on recruiting and promoting its HS teams if recruiting is going to improve. Their 2025 Black team was top 10 in US Club Lax in middle school- not so much anymore. Most of those kids went to NEMS, Skywalkers and M&D over the last few years. Even on their social media, there is very little promotion of their HS age teams.

Coppermine is very True-ish.
Very transactional.

Hiring J Brown will help. Shocked M&D didn’t try harder to keep him to take over for SR in a couple years. Very short-sighted.

highly doubt would want anything to do with 3 step.

If you're posing this question you must not have had dealings with him yet

Seconded. In total - 1 M&D girl, from the Red team, went to Coppermine. And I'm not sure she wasn't cut anyway... But with the way people spoke about him you would have thought a bunch would have followed him.

Rosters for M&D not on website but HS teams updated on IWLCA SportsRecruits.

24 team was an anomaly for recruitment

Nice to see 4 Maryland clubs in US club lacrosse top 10!

Md United is not a top 10 club. Rankings are inaccurate.

LOL. I got news for you, when the 2030s get ranked into the equation next year, MDU will jump into the top-6.

Dropping that 2030 knowledge. Guess he told you.

2030s is where real girls lax is played

SW falling outside top-10 likely as well (though 2027 if they can make big gains would help)

NEMS 24 has 16 D1 commits and a couple of top D3.

And the Brooklyn Dodger were great too once. Landscape changes.

Thanks 27 SW dad. Keep that thought in mind over the next few years.

Cool story bro

Looking at final 2027 rankings, a few things noted when comparing 2022 to 2023:

The top-7, outside of M&D going from 1 to 3, no one moved more than one place up or down.

Jesters made a big leap from 17 to 8. Did they add girls? They seem to come out of nowhere. Defense was their strength, but imo they were a bit too physical and out of control and it cost them.

Steps Navy went from 18 to 11

FLG from 8 to 12, sounds like more talent left this offseason as well.

NXT really jumped, from 34 to 12. They seem like they may be pulling in the top philly area girls now.

Mass Elite went from 10 to 16, but they always seem to be good at HS years.

Coppermine, moved from 25 to 18, seems they survived the storm of girls moving to other clubs.

Philly Blast from 39 to 19. That's two Philly teams in top-20.

Team 180 from 50 to 26. If they add a few more spots, they could break into the top-20. They have great athletes there and pull from a huge metro area.

Having seen most top teams up close all season, here's the scoop.

1-4 are interchangeable. M&D, Hero's, Aces and YJ.. Big drop to next batch.

Then you have the grouping of Eagle, FL Select Cal Alliance and MDU. 5-8. With not much separation between them.

After that a bit muddled. Jesters are good. Not great. Solid D. Weak offense. Will always be competitive. Maybe sneak out a win vs 5-8 teams. Can't sniff top 4 if full teams there.

Steps a solid team...like a lot of top 15. No threat to win any tournaments top teams are at.

The question becomes how well does Capital come out of the gates. Is it the BLC formula? Or a reinventing of the group remaining.

Guess this all plays out in about 45 days

NY Parent here with some perspective on this

- Steps: Steps didn't have A teams or B teams until last year. This year's steps Navy had the best players from Navy and White from the year before

- FLG: Had pretty much the same roster last year as year before. However, they lost a ton this summer. Will be lucky to be top 30 going forward

- Jesters added a few girls last year, but added about 10 new girls from FLG, Liberty and Tradition. They should be a top 10 or even top 5 program next year. Probably the best defense in this age group with their zone; if they can get a couple scorers, then watch out.

- Mass Elite always improves in high school, but they get most of the girls who go to the Boston area prep schools. Also lots of reclasses.

- NXT is a very up and down team. Can beat or can lose to anyone on any given day. Great defense, but similar to Jesters, they just don't have an elite scorers. Have a couple mass elite girls double rosters. Will be interesting to see where those girls end up when recruiting starts.

- Philly Blast. Picked up tons of girls from HHH, which is a joke at this age level. Not sure if they are really a top 20 team. pretty big gap to NXT and some of the other top tier teams.

Good Insight.

what rankings are you referring to

Mass Elite does not travel much before 8th grade so there’s more growth there than some clubs that have continually seen top competition. Also the 2027 Laxachusetts team is good and impacting the girls that would typically go to Mass Elite.

US Club Lacrosse rankings for 2027

To be fair, most mass elite girls are dual rostered on other programs or national teams. About 8 play on HHH Nationals, a couple play on NXT and there are a few others. Well the team may improve with more experience, the idea that their players aren't playing top competition simply isn't true.

8 2027s are also on HHH?

At least 8 are on the HHH National team, which plays in 3-4 tourneys per year I believe. I believe just a few (not 8) also guest play on HHH from time to time.

That's the BS with National teams and why they shouldn't even be in rankings. Worse on the boys side.

2 bad teams combining to make 1 below average team. Fantastic

Is the National HHH team the 2027 team rostered on their website? Or is it different?

If I am looking at the same site as you, its the Philly team, which is different.

The National team will only play in a handfull of tournaments.