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Mileena Cotter and her brother, Paul, who is six years older than her, often played miniature hockey in their basement growing up.

The games lasted hours. Neither was satisfied until a winner emerged.

As the only sibling without hockey experience, alongside her middle brother, Jack, Cotter was thrown in goal. Paul peppered her with shots and regularly bent the rules.

“(Paul) always told me, ‘Once you make five saves, you can go upstairs,’” Cotter said. “Of course, the fifth save wouldn’t count, and he added another one so we had to keep going.”

The siblings’ connection through sport helped Paul become a Stanley Cup champion throughout his ongoing four-year NHL career and shaped Cotter into a starting lacrosse midfielder at Syracuse as a freshman. Cotter said childhood contests with Paul helped her develop into a standout high school player, setting a record in the state of Michigan with 472 goals in 49 games.

Motivated by Paul’s success in professional hockey, Cotter is breaking out in her first season at SU, ranking fourth on the team with 12 goals.

Cole Ross | Digital Design Director

Growing up in the hockey hotbed of Canton, Michigan, Cotter seemed destined to join her brothers on the ice. While Paul and Jack developed their skating through travel play, hockey camps and one-on-ones, Cotter was unsure where she belonged.

In fifth grade, she discovered lacrosse through her nanny, who played at Concordia University. She was hooked immediately.

“I remember my brothers were waking up for 5 a.m. private (hockey) lessons before school, so I was ready to do that with my lacrosse (training),” Cotter said.

Cotter joined local club Monarch Lacrosse during middle school, where she was guided by head coach and founder Greg Courtier. Like he’d done with Northwestern phenom Izzy Scane, a two-time Tewaaraton Award winner, Courtier helped mold Cotter into an all-around offensive threat.

When Cotter joined her high-school team, the Salem Rocks, as a sophomore after losing her freshman season to COVID-19, her training with Courtier translated to dominance.

“I watched her for 10 minutes and thought to myself, ‘This is crazy!’ I mean, her moves are so good, she makes goalies fall down,” Salem head coach Damien Butler told Social House News on June 3, 2024.

Between each school year, Cotter never took summer vacations. Instead, she traveled to Maryland to further sharpen her skills on another club team, Sky Walkers Lacrosse.

While Cotter continued to impress, the pressure to sustain her success began to weigh on her. Paul, then days away from making his NHL debut, helped his sister manage the stress. Even as a member of the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights at the time, Paul always provided her with advice.

Paul usually leaned on his experiences as a 2018 fourth-round draft pick by the Las Vegas Golden Knights. After getting drafted, Paul fought to solidify his spot on the Knights’ roster. Revolving between the Knights and their AHL affiliate throughout the 2021-22 season, Paul learned how to handle adversity, a lesson he passed to his sister.

“(Cotter) brings everybody around her to be better,” Paul said. “When you deal with adversity it’s hard to be able to continue to do that, but that’s just the type of person she is.”

Throughout their lives, Paul and Cotter kept tabs on each other’s games. On her recruitment webpage, Cotter placed a link to Paul’s first career NHL goal, captioning the clip “My Inspiration.”

Following her junior season, Cotter watched Paul’s Golden Knights capture the franchise’s first Stanley Cup on June 13, 2023.

Cotter’s family spent a day with the Cup that summer back home in Canton. Paul also shared his accomplishment with the youth hockey players at his local Plymouth Cultural Center Ice Arena. The line to take a picture with the Cup went out the door.

“A lot of people don’t see the behind-the-scenes of it, but as a sister you do, and you see the hard times,” Cotter said. “Seeing him overcome that all and find such a great dream of his come true, it’s really special.”

So, when Cotter returned to Salem for her senior season, she had a newfound desire to win. She wanted to give Paul “a run for his money.”

Although the Rocks fell short, Cotter strengthened her resume. With her record-breaking goal tally, she was named the 2024 USA Today Girls High School Lacrosse Player of the Year.

Cotter’s success has translated to Syracuse. Amid a young offensive group, she’s become a staple of head coach Kayla Treanor’s attack through her first 11 games, starting six.

“(Cotter) is such a tough player for us, and I think she just keeps getting better and better,” Treanor said. “She’s just been a great addition to the team.”

Mileena Cotter drives toward the goal in Syracuse’s 12-11 defeat over then-No. 21 Notre Dame. Cotter has boosted SU’s attack in her freshman season, scoring 12 goals through 11 games. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer

While now a starter for the New Jersey Devils, Paul still makes an effort to cross paths with Cotter. When they both have an overlapping break in their schedules, they’ll return home for a quick backyard lacrosse match. Few aspects of lacrosse translate to hockey. Still, the two work on technical skills.

“There’s obviously no lacrosse moves in hockey, so immediately my brain went to, ‘OK, let’s do the hockey moves in lacrosse,’” Paul said. “What that is, I don’t know yet, but hopefully we can figure something out.”

Since Cotter began her Syracuse career, Paul has tuned in for almost all her games. Between his practices, he makes sure to record Cotter’s most memorable goals on his laptop. He also likes to text Cotter videos of her occasionally missing open shots to give her a hard time.

After Cotter scored her overtime goal against then-No. 6 Stanford, Paul was upset he missed watching it live. But when he saw the replay later that day, he got chills.

“Hearing the coach talk about her after the (Stanford) game was so cool. Sometimes you don’t really realize that that’s someone talking about your little sister,” Paul said.

Just like her brother, Cotter now dons No. 47 every time she takes the field for the Orange.

The number isn’t just a nod to Paul’s, but it represents a standard to uphold. Cotter has learned what it takes to win a championship. Now, she wants to add her own accomplishments to her family’s trophy case.

“I give (my brothers) a lot of credit in my journey because I want to make an impact how they’ve made an impact,” Cotter said. “They’ve gone through so many different challenges, and all that’s done is really give me the motivation to want to do it myself.”

Published on March 26, 2025 at 11:29 pm
Contact Matthew: mgray06@syr.edu | @ma77hew_gray