Emma Penczek’s signature is on a scrap of paper on the bulletin board in Shelly Brezicki’s Manchester Valley (Md.) High School office.
“In joking, I make them sign a little paper in my office that says they’re not leaving,” said Brezicki, coach of the Maverick girls’ lacrosse team.
Penczek and a Manchester Valley staff member signed the faux agreement June 5, 2023, just two weeks after the do-everything midfielder scored a record-tying nine goals for the Mavericks in a 15-7 win over Middletown for the 2A state championship to cap an unbeaten season.
Penczek was only a sophomore then, but already on the radar nationally.
“It was a play contract,” Penczek said. “It was just something fun.”
But Penczek’s decision to remain at Manchester Valley instead of going to a private school has been a huge boon to the Mavericks. The 2023 state title was their first since 2016. Last year, they repeated as Carroll County champions and won the 2A West Region I title.
“I did have people reach out and ask whether or not I was going to go private or public with the option of both,” Penczek said. “But ultimately what I really wanted was just to stay with my friends that I have grown up with since elementary school and with the friendships that developed in middle school. I love going to Manchester Valley. I’ve developed even more friendships there.”
It hasn’t hurt her development or recruiting. Inside Lacrosse’s No. 2-ranked recruit in the Class of 2025 is headed to Clemson next year. She is the two-time Baltimore Sun Carroll County Player of the Year and was the All-Metro Player of the Year in 2023. Penczek hopes to add another state title to cap her career at Manchester Valley.
“I have thought, ‘I wonder what it would have been like if I hadn't gone here,’” Penczek said. “But then I always think back to myself that I'm here for a reason. These people have gotten me where I am today.”
Nine of the top 15 players from Inside Lacrosse’s Class of 2025 rankings attend public schools, including the top three. No. 1 recruit Alexa Spallina, who will join Penczek at Clemson, is an attacker out of Mount Sinai (N.Y.), and third-ranked Ceci Patterson, a goalie headed to Notre Dame, plays for New Canaan (Conn.).
Penczek is the only Maryland public school player in the top 15. She has made plenty of friends from other schools on her M&D club team.
“These kids have opportunities,” Brezicki said. “The people that came before them have created such a culture and a program that they want to be a part of.”
Penczek started playing lacrosse at age 5. Neither of her parents had played the sport, but her father, Greg, is the director of athletic training at Towson and was on the staff of the gold medal-winning 2023 U.S. Men’s National Team. She took it up along with soccer and basketball and has continued to play all three sports through her senior year at Manchester Valley.
“We do take pride in being a great program as a public school and we always think that we would be able to compete with some of these private schools as well,” Penczek said.
Penczek has put up such staggering offensive numbers the last two years — 174 goals, 74 assists and 259 draw controls — that it has overshadowed just how good she is defensively.
“It’s what I think makes her a true two-way middie,” Brezicki said. “You don't get too many anymore in our game.”
Penczek stands out for her speed, stick skills and lacrosse IQ. She takes pride in her draw controls. “I love being on the circle when the draw’s taken,” she said, “being scrappy and gritty to get that ground ball or the ball out of the air.”
If she doesn’t get the ball, Penczek is one of the fiercest at trying to get it back for the Mavericks. She led the team in caused turnovers with 37 in 2023 and 34 in 2024. If she did not play midfield, she’d be a lockdown low defender — like Lizzie Colson, who scored 300 goals at Manchester Valley before specializing as a defender for Maryland and the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Brezicki expects Penczek to make an immediate impact at Clemson as a key member of the Tigers' prized recruiting class. She’s in the last year of that make-believe contract — ready to make more believers in a public-school powerhouse.
“The kids in our community grow up watching Manchester Valley lacrosse and in true fashion, want to be Mavericks,” Brezicki said. “That is just our tight-knit community and the and the support that we get.”
