Waterdogs Head Coach Andy Copelan and the Expansion Draft

Andy Copelan has a very unique opportunity tonight.

Last March, the league released the official team rosters for the six inaugural PLL lacrosse clubs, and each player participating in the new league was assigned to a team based on a four-tiered system designed by the league’s Lacrosse Advisory Board. Aside from the four-round 2019 College Draft, the seven reported trades during the 2019 season, and a handful of in-season transactions, Head Coaches Chris Bates (Archers), John Paul (Atlas), Andy Towers (Chaos), Dom Starsia (Chrome), Nat St. Laurent (Redwoods), and Jim Stagnitta (Whipsnakes) worked with a roster that they themselves did not put together.

Copelan was named head coach of the league’s first expansion team, Waterdogs LC, on January 2, and on YouTube tonight at 6 p.m. ET, he will become the first head coach in league history to completely build his team with 18 selections in the 2020 PLL Expansion Draft.

Copelan graduated from Bucknell University in 2003, where he was a four-year starter and helped his team win four consecutive Patriot League titles. His first head coaching job was at Marist University in 2004, becoming the youngest head coach in college lacrosse. He led Marist to their first NCAA tournament appearance in school history in 2005 before accepting an assistant coach position at the University of Maryland in 2006. In 2008, he started his eleven-year run as Head Coach of Fairfield University, where his .527% win percentage is the best in the program’s history. He guided his team to back-to-back Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular-season championships in 2015 and 2016, winning CAA Coach of the Year in 2015.

PLL Co-Founder and Atlas midfielder Paul Rabil called Copelan a “bright mind” on his podcast, Unbuckled Chinstrap, after spending time with him throughout the league’s interview process for new coaches. He noted that the new Waterdogs head coach showed up with a whiteboard and “already written-down assumptions of unprotected and protected rosters.” Copelan is going to need that bright mind to navigate the unprotected roster pool and draft the initial 18 pieces to his team.

I talked about who I think the top players available are in an article we uploaded Monday on Top Shelf Lax breaking down the unprotected roster, but there are a handful of other factors to consider as we count down the hours to the league’s first expansion draft. With the Entry Draft and College Draft right around the corner, it will be exciting to see how Copelan plans to construct his roster based on how the other teams are already built and the talent possibly available in March and April.

After being named Waterdogs Head Coach, Copelan immediately previewed expansion, emphasizing his desire for a balanced team, specifically when it comes to experience and the flexibility of his players to play in different spots in certain situations of the game. The experience aspect is pretty straightforward: a mix of young guys and veteran guys. When building a roster, executives in any sport will aim to accomplish this mix as they hope to set their club up for current and future success, and the league’s other six coaches did that for their teams by protecting who they thought will be their eleven most important pieces going forward. Copelan has an opportunity to assemble a group of talented lacrosse players in the unprotected pool, both veterans and young talent, that meet the description of what he is looking for.

What I’m most interested to see tonight is the gameplan that Copelan comes in with and which parts of the game he focuses on. After tonight, he will have seven roster spots left to fill before the season begins at the end of May, and it seems to make the most sense that he will figure out the goalie situation and the defensive midfield tonight so that he doesn’t need to worry about it over the next three months and the next two drafts. Jack Kelly and Adam Ghitleman are there for the taking, and both could be successful starters in the PLL. Midfielders Pat Harbeson, Joel Tinney, and Max Tuttle are guys that can play in all three phases of the game (offense, defense, and special teams), and selecting these players would allow Copelan to make attack, defense, and the faceoff X his focus as we get closer to the Entry and College Drafts. Five of the six teams kept their starting faceoff specialist, and I believe that Copelan will wait until March and April to address the position.

Make sure you tune in tonight to the league’s YouTube channel at 6 p.m. ET for the 2020 PLL Expansion Draft to see which 18 players are selected to the league’s newest team, Waterdogs LC.