Coppermine vs. Baltimore Armour

[Anonymous]

It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

[Anonymous]

This was buried in the Bethesda thread

Big News: Our Club Accepted into MLS
NEXT Homegrown
From Andrew Bulls

Players, Parents, Coaches, Staff and Community, We are thrilled to announce that our club has been accepted into the MLS NEXT Homegrown Division for boys U13-U19, widely regarded as the highest level of youth soccer in the United States. This milestone will take effect beginning with the Fall 2026-27 season.
Our club will continue to compete in the MLS NEXT
Academy Division, operating as one unified organization across both divisions within our established player development pathway. We wanted our membership to receive this information directly from us upon confirmation.
This milestone represents a significant step forward for the club and reflects the collective efforts and commitment of our players, coaches, leadership, staff, and families.
More information regarding what this means for our teams and overall structure will be shared in the coming days. An official public announcement will also be released on our social media channels soon.
We are proud of the direction our club is heading and look forward to continuing to build together.
Andrew Bulls
Coppermine Soccer Club | President

I can't offer any specific advice, but it's more than a rumor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

Keeping up in what way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

Keeping up in what way?

I assume having competitive teams at the highest level. If they've been poor at developing and just recruit to fill spots and now the spigot is turned off due to Coppermine getting top level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

Keeping up in what way?

I assume having competitive teams at the highest level. If they've been poor at developing and just recruit to fill spots and now the spigot is turned off due to Coppermine getting top level.

Every single MLS Next team has players that come from outside the club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

Keeping up in what way?

I assume having competitive teams at the highest level. If they've been poor at developing and just recruit to fill spots and now the spigot is turned off due to Coppermine getting top level.

Most U-littles teams only have 2 to 5 strong players that carry the rest

Forming a top tier U13 or U14 team with 20 player roster requires bringing players in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It hasn't been officially announced yet, but everyone in the BA area believes that Coppermine will get HG this upcoming season. In the past, SAC/BA have usually coasted by having their younger teams be less competitive than Coppermine, Celtic, Pipeline, etc, and then when the boys get to be MLSNext age, BA brings in players from all those clubs to fill their MLS Next teams and moves their internal boys down to lower teams. What's everyone thinking will happen this year when Coppermine gets mlsn hg? It's hard to see BA keeping up.

Keeping up in what way?

I assume having competitive teams at the highest level. If they've been poor at developing and just recruit to fill spots and now the spigot is turned off due to Coppermine getting top level.

Every single MLS Next team has players that come from outside the club

Yes, but 75% of the team is homegrown at other MD MLS Next I clubs. I don’t know about BA though and their history.

[Anonymous]

Competition is good. Armour has coasted for the past few years as the only MLS Next team in the Baltimore area. Their coaches are known to phone it in sometimes. They will need to improve to remain competitive.

Coppermine has a larger travel program, more fields, and coaches that are more involved. They will surpass Armour in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Competition is good. Armour has coasted for the past few years as the only MLS Next team in the Baltimore area. Their coaches are known to phone it in sometimes. They will need to improve to remain competitive.

Coppermine has a larger travel program, more fields, and coaches that are more involved. They will surpass Armour in a few years.

Surpass at what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competition is good. Armour has coasted for the past few years as the only MLS Next team in the Baltimore area. Their coaches are known to phone it in sometimes. They will need to improve to remain competitive.

Coppermine has a larger travel program, more fields, and coaches that are more involved. They will surpass Armour in a few years.

Surpass at what?

Why is this confusing? Coppermine will have better teams with better players who play better in games and go on to do better things. Soccer. Surpass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competition is good. Armour has coasted for the past few years as the only MLS Next team in the Baltimore area. Their coaches are known to phone it in sometimes. They will need to improve to remain competitive.

Coppermine has a larger travel program, more fields, and coaches that are more involved. They will surpass Armour in a few years.

Surpass at what?

Why is this confusing? Coppermine will have better teams with better players who play better in games and go on to do better things. Soccer. Surpass.

The only measurement are how many individual players going to high level college programs or professional soccer

The rest is opinionated fodder

[Anonymous]

Pipeline is still the top team locally for Baltimore kids
Coppermine practices out in Bel Air and BA in Columbus. Many families aren’t willing to make the hour long rush hour drive from Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pipeline is still the top team locally for Baltimore kids
Coppermine practices out in Bel Air and BA in Columbus. Many families aren’t willing to make the hour long rush hour drive from Baltimore.

Pipeline IS a great club. People in the DC/Baltimore area don’t think of a one hour drive as a big deal.

This is the thing. Up until now SAC could
get away with not developing talent in-house because they knew a few kids would peel off from clubs like Pipeline because the the allure of that MLS badge. Now if those guys go to or stay at Coppermine, BA is going to struggle to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pipeline is still the top team locally for Baltimore kids
Coppermine practices out in Bel Air and BA in Columbus. Many families aren’t willing to make the hour long rush hour drive from Baltimore.

Pipeline IS a great club. People in the DC/Baltimore area don’t think of a one hour drive as a big deal.

This is the thing. Up until now SAC could
get away with not developing talent in-house because they knew a few kids would peel off from clubs like Pipeline because the the allure of that MLS badge. Now if those guys go to or stay at Coppermine, BA is going to struggle to keep up.

You obviously came up with this theory at 3am, considered it brilliant and couldn't wait to repeat it here at nauseum

Haven't you heard, no one develops talent at any club in the dmv, except the club the poster likes personally

[Anonymous]

OP.

I’m really just curious what people think will happen. This is a pretty big change. As one person said earlier, building a top team requires bringing guys in. Now BA will have to bring in more players to their top teams, and they will have more competition for that limited pool of top players. For a lot of people they were the only option. Now they aren’t. Coppermine teams are already very strong as ECNL clubs. It seems like this could lead to an even higher level of roster and coach turnover at BA as they take a few years to work through this.