AFTER a near-perfect 2019, budding lacrosse star Madison Copeland could be forgiven for not expecting this year to come close to matching it.
Yet just one month into the new year, 2020 is promising to be just as momentous, after the 18-year-old received her maiden call-up to the Australian national team.
Poised to make her international debut, the Atwell resident is also on the cusp of a life-changing move to the United States, where she is poised to join Loyola University Maryland’s elite lacrosse program.
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READ NOWHaving previously represented Australia at under-19 and under-23 level, Copeland was understandably delighted to be offered a senior national team contract, which will run until October, describing it as a “step-up”.
“That US team at the under-19 World Cup, they’re the best players in the world,” she said.
“To play against them would be so good and now the Australian senior girls are very good too, we’d be more competitive at a senior level than we would at under-19s level.”
A week into the new year, Copeland also received a nomination from World Lacrosse, the sport’s international governing body, as their candidate for World Games Athlete of the Year.
“When I saw that I had been nominated, I was super shocked; it’s World Games, so any lacrosse player in the world could have got it, so I wondered why they were picking some nobody from Australia,” she said.
Her bright start to the year followed a whirlwind 2019, in which Copeland claimed trophy after trophy and tasted success at every level she competed.
She helped Australia claim a bronze medal at the under-19 World Championships in Canada and was the only member of the side selected in the World Team for the best players of the tournament.
Back home, Copeland won the Shelley Maher Trophy for the fairest and best player across all of Australia’s top women’s state competitions and was awarded the Kuljak Medal for best player in the women’s state league grand final after steering East Fremantle to their fifth title in a row.
With the local level conquered, she has turned her gaze stateside and is looking forward to linking up with Loyola’s women’s team, who are a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I school, the highest level of intercollegiate sports available.
Her mother Tanya said while the plan was for Madison to move over in June, they were waiting with bated breath for the seal of approval from the NCAA, who need to sign off her academic eligibility.
“Once the WACE certificates come out, the NCAA will make their final decision on whether she can go this year. You’re a student before you’re an athlete and they don’t waiver on it,” she said.
If the NCAA reject the initial application, it is not the end of the road for Copeland – she will simply have to enrol at a local university and transfer across in January next year.
In the meantime, alongside her national team call-up, she has the RAC Sports Awards to look forward to, where she has been nominated for the Hyundai Junior Sports Star award.
Winners will be announced February 13.