Local Clubs — Let’s Create a Glossary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is amazing info and exactly of the type I was hoping to hear.

Goodness re: MDU Director. Can you say more? That’s a club I know nothing about (besides that they have some strong teams, including younger teams) but made some pretty positive presumptions (based on who knows what). Are their teams primarily made up of local St. Mary’s and Severn School girls?

How is the Coppermine director?

MDU director can be extremely bitter and petty, and she can also be asleep at the wheel at the same time. She runs a decent operation, however, there are never problems with logistics. What I have heard about her is that she doesn’t get involved with teams until just before recruiting cycles, and that has led to some teams imploding in the past. Also, she thinks that her club is on par with HG and M&D, doesn’t get involved in any of the recruiting stuff (BIC, JO, etc.), and they do zero recruiting as a program. Some coaches might recruit girls, but you mostly see more talent leave than brought in. Lastly, if you leave the club, she is super bitter and now hates your entire family.

I haven’t really heard much about the CM director, but it seems like the program is well run overall and it is certainly well funded! They are a relatively new club though, so jury is still out.

[Anonymous]

Coppermine just got a new director. Jury is still out on her.

Coppermine has very good young teams. Some of their older teams have had problems players leaving for the blue bloods (Heros, MnD, SW).

SW younger teams tend to be bad but they get better as you get closer to recruiting years.

Heros and MnD are very competitive. You will have to deal with out of state players taking spots on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add on, I’m just wondering if there are real differences between say M&D and Maryland United or Coppermine and Maryland United or Hero’s and Coppermine or Coppermine and Skywalkers (besides ranking).

-M&D Black- great program, top 3 overall club every single year for a reason. Good director, recruiting coordinator, and mostly awesome coaches. The downside is they demand success and will bring in recruits to replace marginal players.
-M&D Shore and Red- usually not great teams but their kids end up at decent colleges.
-Heros- Exact same write up as M&D black, but the program seems to put a lot of into the White team and doesn’t just ignore them for Green. White is probably the best “B” program around here.
-Coppermine- massive potential as a program, but hit some hiccups with the at one time #1 2028 team. Doing pretty well from 2029 down, but the B and regional teams usually aren’t great.
-MDU- completely dependent on year and what local kids stay in annapolis area for club. Director is a nut job, and some teams are just allowed to disintegrate, like their at one time top 10
2029 team. B teams (the West, East is their A) are usually pretty decent.
-Skywalkers- dinosaur program, director is a pyscho, and the current program lives off its reputation from previous teams. Will also replace kids quickly, but unlike M&D, the replacements aren’t really recruits as much as they are cast offs from M&D or Heros.

Good write up and I generally agree. Not sure "great" is enough of an adjective on M&D Black and their historical success, but the write up is solid. It's the flagship program in the region, if not the country. Other M&Ds have no track record of success and probably not worthy of commentary, including DC.

Kind of harsh on Sky Walkers. They have avoided extinction and still get good recruiting results for their top tier players.

MDU does stay consistently relevant. Deep talent pool out there. Just look at Archbishop Spalding, St. Mary's, Severna Park, etc.

On the DC teams, pre high school, the shake out and ultimate hierarchy of BLC, M&D DC, Pride, Stars, etc is still unclear and seems to diverge year to year. The BLC partnership with Capital on the academy would appear to have been an effective counter to M&D DC's moves, and may put them in the driver's seat.

For high school, the only game in town is Capital. 2025s finished #2, and 2026s were ranked as high as #6, but finished #11.

As for a couple of sentences to describe: Best HS club in the DC area; very successful program on the field, with top 10 recruiting results annually, especially to high academic schools. Coaching is generally strong, but club is a bit of a my way or the highway operation. The fact that Capital doesn't start until high school with one make or break tryout for teams has pushed a lot of top local talent to the best Maryland clubs starting in Middle School.

Thanks!

You are correct, and maybe I was being harsh, but I just have had bad experiences with SWs and some families there so I am bitter lol.

The Annapolis area is interesting for lacrosse. Tons of talent, as much as anywhere in the country, but a decent amount of that talent goes to M&D black and HG. Look at the rosters for Spalding, St Marys, Severna Park, and Severn; almost as many M&D and HG as local clubs, at least for the players that actually play. Because of that top end talent leaving the county, MDU and Integrity compete for the remaining girls. MDU usually wins out, but you will notice that for each class, one is up and the other is down. 28s- MDU East is strong, Integrity Green stinks; 29s- Integrity Green is strong, MDU East stinks; and 30s- MDU East is elite, Integrity Green stinks. So MDU is only strong by luck; how many kids stayed local on a given year and chose them over Integrity. It has almost nothing to do with the director, she doesn’t recruit at all.

Capital is still the best bet in town for DC talent that doesn’t want to drive an hour to HG or M&D. But it’s success is almost solely dependent on being the only established team in a talent rich area. The people that run the program were always super nice to me, but it isn’t the most competent program. The coaches are usually pretty good, but most people I know said that there was almost zero help with recruiting except for a few on a given team, and it was just more of a collection of talent than a developed team. This might be due to only starting in HS, but it is why a team like the 27 blue team having D1 girls everywhere but not getting great results on the field. All that said, it is still the best place for the best DC girls that don’t want to commute to practice. But if you can make the drive to Bmore, do it.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Let's throw in some info on B teams. Not everyone will be able to make an A team.

In general, I say Heros White, Mnd Red, Capital Orange, and maybe SW White give the best chance to be recruited to a good program.