On Saturday, August 22nd, 2026, COPA STC in Walnut Creek hosted the largest NorCal PDP Talent ID Day yet, and 43 players earned invitations into NorCal PDP training environments. Combined with the 46 who came through the first year of the pathway, 89 players have now earned their way into NorCal PDP through The COPA Score — the overwhelming majority of whom had never appeared on a PDP list before.

The headline number is 43. The more interesting number sits underneath it.

A significant share of the players who earned invitations on August 22nd were late developers — players whose skeletal age sits meaningfully behind their chronological age. In a traditional selection environment, these are precisely the players who get missed. These late developers may be smaller and less physically developed than peers born in the same calendar year who are biologically more mature based on skeletal age.

The COPA Score captures maturation as part of a player’s full profile, which means a technically outstanding late developer is flagged as exactly that — rather than quietly filed as “not physical enough.” NorCal PDP’s technical staff understand this deeply, and August 22nd is what it looks like when the assessment framework and the evaluators are pointed in the same direction.

The same is true in reverse. Early-maturing players who dominate on physical profile alone get context applied to their numbers — which protects them, too, from being over-projected on the basis of a temporary advantage.