US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM MD Girls 2028

Hero's had one non-starter leave for M&D who has an older sister and dad that are already at M&D. They did not have any leave for Coppermine. They did have several girls from Green get cut and not sure where those girls ended up as they do not appear on any rosters online (which are all posted aside from M&D and MDU)

Players move for many reasons whether it’s location, personal, coaching styles, friends, move to different level of talent (up & down), or changes on current team but it’s not always as B&W as people make it out to be on here. Hopefully all found the right fit for themselves this Season as next year starts HS. Looking forward to a great Season for my daughter knowing the changes these girls will face in HS. Wishing everyone the best too.

Try learning to use something called the Internet. M&D rosters are online.

I think that might need to be revised as of recent actions.

What does that mean?

Sounds like some Hero's players may have moved to other teams after tryouts.

Not any that made the team.

This is all over all the boards... any time a Heros kids goes to another team they were cut or getting cut but when Heros gets a kid from another team they took that teams best player. Movement happens, it's okay

People talk as soon as tryouts start and everyone knows which players from the Top 5 clubs show up at other teams tryouts. There is currently one former Heros player on the M&D roster that was at tryouts and did not play much at Heros and wanted to move. No other Heros players were at M&D tryouts and no other Heros players are currently on their roster. Someone posted that the roster needed to be revised due to recent actions. Either that person is wrong or if it was in reference to a Heros player that player was added after tryouts concluded without attending a M&D tryout. I guess we will see once tournaments start.

You are a good story teller, but none of this is accurate. Maybe get some facts right.

All rosters are public with the exception of Maryland United so how is there any room for conjecture? There is one former Hero’s player on M&D. None left for Coppermine as PP suggested unless there is some recent top secret move (doubtful).

Anybody doing the APEX Youth Games? Did not see a ton of players from the Big 5 Baltimore clubs even though it's right up the road at Cedar Lane. Any past experiences with it?

Daughter is a 2029 on her second day of Apex. Short story: don’t waste your money with Apex.

Apex is $850 plus a cash grab of $150 to be “evaluated as an all American” plus a cash grab of $150 for game film. Plus pressure to book the hotel through their mandatory link (which adds more than $200 to the hotel price with “taxes and fees” over booking directly. So a $550 Two night hotel would be closer to $750).

Apex is no more than quickly assembling teams and playing a tournament with them. There’s a two hour block of 7v7 drills to familiarize the girls with each other, but nothing that comes close to a learning experience. The coaching is among the most disinterested/uninvolved coaching I’ve ever seen. In fact, my kid said that her day one coaches will be replaced on day two due to other engagements. I thought I recalled seeing information about college coach exposure and recruitment at some of the age levels. There are zero signs of that. Zero signs of it attracting any kind of publicity from lacrosse publications also. With hours between games, the coaches simply walk away from the kids rather than saying “hey, let’s learn a play we can implement in the next game.” The level of play on the field is atrocious. It’s nowhere near travel tier. Anyone on one of the top 30 teams will standout as being far better than anyone else. There are basically zero defensive players registered in this experience, so every possession is a girl running up the field and shooting on goal while girls who regularly play middie and attack fill in for defensive positions and get called on shooting space and 3 second violations on nearly every possession. Or the even more classic “get the ball, everyone chase her, and she’ll eventually run into a block of players instead of passing to the number 3 attacker in the country standing open in front of goal.”

This experience is worth the price of a regular tournament that you’d play with your travel team, so $150. Could possibly justify $150x2. This price tag is absolutely insane, but you’ll pay it because of its viral marketing strategy of posting cool pics of the registrants with bursts of color behind them. There are no signs that this is any better for 2028’s. I don’t remember it being disclosed that 2029 and 2030 were combined, but they were. And that’s annoying. Especially when 30’s that aren’t any good are given field time as a matter of routine. Fields are short. Quarters are 9 minutes.

How would I improve this?
Make it invite only, or invite predominant- where defense is recruited for the event. Call invitees “star players” and send the invites to top teams. They’ll bite. Fill the gaps with general signups.
Offer clinics throughout the day. (Backer defense 101, goalie clearing, setting up offense, etc)
Create an agenda of potential meetups for kids at the hotel or at the field pavilion.
Give the coaches a Red Bull and ask them to reduce the “lacrosse bro swag” and teach the kids a thing or two.
Set up team tents and campout areas
OR—just lower the price point and keep things as it is

Don’t have any FOMO over this event.

Or keep the price as it is (or raise it) because there are many many other parents just like you willing to pay.

Update: day two was the same. There was a “pop up clinic” for losing teams that appeared shortly after my post.

2028 parent. Expensive, but not that bad at all at the 2028 level. Would benefit from a few more hours of instruction, and better recruiting from top 20 club teams. From my perspective, the 2028s that came--55 or so players--seemed to really enjoy it and seemed like a group that was serious about improving their game. Even lopsided games were played wire to wire and the girls worked hard. Goalies were great. We would do it again.

The "Apex All Stars" were posted after the event...for the 2028 age group there were: 4 from 3d garden state, 2 from Dewlax, 6 from Igloo-Frostbite, 5 from JSS Blue, 3 from Lax on Elite, and 1 each from Philadelphia Freedom, Ultimate LV, and Virginia One. Aside from Jersey Select all of those other teams are ranked below (and some waaaaay below) all of the A and B teams from NGLL in this region. I am glad your daughter had a good time, but it is apparent that this event is not one that is worth the $ for any player who plays in the NGLL. That might change over the years as it gets closer to recruiting, but with all the new events popping up, it seems like everything is getting watered down and it will be tough to figure out which ones are worth it moving forward.

Agree, it can be difficult to discern which are going to be worth your money but it seems to me like Apex has a few red flags if you're not blinded by their Instagram marketing. Apex bills themselves as a gathering of "the nations best" talent, but accepts girls based on a very brief Google Form. Seems like that could be a tip off that what they're selling doesn't match reality. (Not that there aren't some good events that are application vs. tryout based, Best In Class is supposed to be a good event, for example, but their application is more thorough and they have a good reputation.) Events like Apex offer girls a good time, but if you're going for anything beyond that at this age, you might end up disappointed.

For 2029 the “all American” is a money grab “add-on.” Is that the same for the All Stars at 2028? If so, wouldn’t that make it possible that a top-tier player didn’t elect to pay for the “all star evaluation?”

For 2029 the “all American” is a money grab “add-on.” Is that the same for the All Stars at 2028? If so, wouldn’t that make it possible that a top-tier player didn’t elect to pay for the “all star evaluation?”

Not sure what is more annoying the apex announcer sayin marginal players are the best around or the actual tournaments.

To your point, at Best In Class 90% (if not more) of the girls get in without applying. They reach out to top 25 clubs and say nominate 5 players. Then they reach out to top 50 clubs and say nominate 3.

You can submit film, but I don't know anyone who applied via the website (at least at the high school level) who actually got in.

They have not posted the all stars yet for the Apex Youth Games over the past weekend.

Clubs there this past weekend for the 2028s did not include the Big 5 Baltimore clubs, but did include Yellow Jackets, Jesters, NXT, Aces, Pride, and Primetime, so the All Star or All-American lists may look a bit different from the last Apex event.

But you did have to pay $150 to be considered, so any good players not willing to pay that won’t make the list? What do players get for their money beyond a shout out (genuinely curious)?

That's insane if true. I mean BIC is 88 players. You can't take top 5 from the top 25 clubs lol.

It's more for older kids. 120ish for rising sophs and 180ish for rising juniors.

And not everyone invited accepts the invite, but yes it is difficult to get into. If you aren't a top player on a top club, your chances of being invited are pretty slim.

My daughter attended. There is no amount of rhetoric, no "all star, best in class, evaluation, all American, premier league, elite league, national leader, committed, limited by position, invite" nonsense that would ever convince me to pay this kind of money again for this fleece-job. The 2029 parent who commented did a pretty good job at detailing the event. You could tell me that only the top .01% of the players in the country attend this event and I would tell you that they attended because they fell victim to your social media propaganda. I would also tell you that I want to see your calculator.

Fall Lax fest draws are out. Looks to be pretty well attended for a one day tournament. Any predictions?

The brackets still seem weird with how many teams come from each pool, but at least it is better than last year where the winner of A played the winner of B.
It should end up with 2 teams from the A bracket in the finals. Coppermine and Eaglestix coming out of the A bracket and meeting up in the finals.

Eaglestix has the easiest pool play schedule for A. They dodge Coppermine, M&D, Cruch, MDU, and Skywalkers.


Probably have to go undefeated to be top 2 in that pool. M&D plays coppermine, crush and skywalkers. That is a tough draw. Skywalkers has the next toughest schedule playing coppermine, M&D and NXT.

Belles were ranked 51 last year, so they will probably go 0-3. Not sure how or why they ended up in the A bracket. Crush could come out 3-0 as well because they play Belles and FCA before playing M&D.

Coppermine will go 3-0 and their goal differential will keep any other 3-0 team from having a chance.

Couple of notes on this good summary.

Eagle Stix did get a good draw, but they are playing MDU.

Coppermine could go 3-0 in the IAAM...but they do have to play M&D. M&D have a tough schedule as usual.

Belles inclusion is a head-scratcher. As is FCA. Rest of bracket is top 10 (6 teams) or top 20 (2 more) from last year.

Also, very unclear why the third-best pool (Skulls) gets 3 places in the bracket, and the A group (Candles) only gets two. That should be adjusted, or a great team, maybe Crush, maybe Eagle Stix, with a 3-0 record, could be left out. Even Coppermine, if they don't run up the score, and play great D, could be impacted. Bad incentives.

"Coppermine could go 3-0 in the IAAM"

LOL. You have no idea how big of a difference 1-2 years can make at that age.

Coppermine parents/admirers are so unrealistic. They have been the best team in this year, but this is also a year where the talent spread out more than any other year in the Midatlantic across 5 different teams. Imagine how good the best team is in the 2027 year and up, where best Midatlantic talent is all concentrated on 2-3 teams. You are neither the first great team, nor the last, and girls all over the country are catching up.

Has to be based purely on number of teams in the pool. This tournament always seems to have a nonsensical approach to playoffs.

The bottom 3 in the C conference, maybe. What a foolish statement.

Darkhorse is NEMS...should come out of Skulls unscathed and then take that momentum to the championship!

Speaking of IIAM, predictions on which high schools are going to get the best 2028 talent? Or will a lot of girls stay public? Some schools have definitely been recruiting hard, wonder if it will pay off.

I have a very good idea. Sorry that wry humor doesn't work for you. Don't sleep on Maryvale in 2 years though...

If you mean to imply that Maryvale is going to have all Coppermine’s talent, I’ve heard conflicting reports aside from one they already have

They will be sitting by Hero's Green 27 kids for three years if they go there. I think there's like 7 of them.

Is it wise to switch club teams if there are no players on the team that will be going to the same IAAM high school as your daughter?