4 Simple Tips for Taking Care of Your Goalie Stick
The goaltender’s stick takes a serious beating throughout the season. Through that time the goalie sees hundreds of shots that cause mesh to tear and heads to break from inclement weather conditions.
To help the young and old tenders, I have come up with 4 simple tips to take care of your goalie stick to get you through the season and many more to come.
#1 Let It Breathe
NEVER leave your gear on your stick, whether it’s after practice in the back of your car or propped up against a wall to dry. The weight from the gear resting on the head can warp the plastic. When a head warps the pocket can change and it will typically weaken the integrity plastic of the head.
Instead: Without any gear on the stick, rest the cross face first against a wall with the pocket pushed out. This will combat warping and prevent your pocket from becoming misshapen.
Oh yeah, get a gear bag and treat your stick with respect!
#2 Practice Stick Hygiene
DO NOT leave dirt on the head or mesh after a muddy game/practice. The mud can seep into the mesh fibers, which in turn could alter your pocket leaving you with a hard, inaccurate, dirt-incrusted mess. Respect your stick and give it a scrub down every now, treat it how you want it to treat you.
Instead: If your stick is muddy, rinse off your pocket with warm water and wipe away any big chunks of mud out the mesh and head.
After you did your best to clean the mesh, push the pocket out, prop it up against a wall face down to dry. Store it the same way as in Tip #1 to extend the life of your mesh along with keeping the shape of your pocket.
#3 Room Temperature is Gold
TRY NOT to store your stick in a cold place for long periods of time and then bring it to play a game or pick-up with. It can weaken the plastic and make it brittle. One good shot to the side or scoop of the head can lead to a break in the plastic.
Also, really hot and humid temperatures can negatively affect the plastic too. Sticks like the same weather you do!
Instead: If you can, keep your sticks inside where it’s climate controlled and propped up like I mentioned before. If you can’t keep the crosse inside, try to bring the stick indoors for about an hour before leaving for a game. This allows the plastic to warm up or cool down making the chances of head breakage much less likely.
#4 Friends Don’t Touch Friends’ Crosses
PREVENT IF POSSIBLE any friends or teammates from using your stick and playing around with it at practice or on the sideline at games. You’ve become accustom to your stick throwing a certain way. If you let your friends use it, they could alter the way it throws from improper care. You could be left with a stick you are unfamiliar with and the headache of fixing it, or worse, a broken head.
Instead: Explain to your teammates that you would like them to NOT play around with your stick and leave it be if left unattended. You could even offer your back up’s back up to let them mess around with!
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These 4 simple tips take little to no time to execute. They seem small, but can extended the life of your stick and save yourself money on buying new mesh and heads every season.
Take care of your gear, and your gear will take care of you!
Following these tips personally for the last 9 years as a goaltender, I believe have allowed me to keep a stick that I regularly use for at least 5 years. I hope these tips help you on your venture as a goaltender and wish you good luck in your upcoming season.
2018 NCAA Men’s Top 20 Goalie Stick Setups
By Coach Damon
With the 2018 NCAA men’s lacrosse season underway it’s time to check in on the stick setups of the top 20 men’s teams.
I’ve done posts like this in the previous year –
But now we’re back with the 2018 version.
This list of Top 20 teams was taken from ranking as of March 5th, 2018. By the time you read this post the current men’s top 20 might look very different as it continues to shape and morph all season long.
But as of right now, here are the top 20 teams, their goalies, and those goalies lacrosse stick setups.
2018 NCAA Men Lacrosse Goalie Stick Setups
1. Albany – JD Colarusso
A post shared by UAlbany Men’s Lacrosse (@ualbanymlax) on
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
2. Maryland – Dan Morris
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A post shared by Maryland Men’s Lacrosse (@terpsmlax) on
- Head: Under Armour Headline
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
3. Duke – Danny Fowler
A post shared by Duke Men’s Lacrosse (@dukemlax) on
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
4. Denver – Alex Ready
- Head: OG Warrior Nemesis
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
5. Villanova – Nick Testa
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
6.
Syracuse – Dom Madonna
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Medium Length
7. Loyola – Jacob Stover
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
8. Virginia – Griffen Thompson
A post shared by Virginia Men’s Lacrosse (@uvamenslax) on
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
9. North Carolina – Jack Pezzula
A post shared by UNC Lacrosse (@uncmenslacrosse) on
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Medium Length
10.
Yale – Jack Starr
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Medium Length
11. Notre Dame – Matt Schmidt
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
12. Army – AJ Barretto
- Head: Brine Eraser
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
13. Rutgers – Max Edelmann
A post shared by Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse (@rutgersmlax) on
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
14. Ohio State – Matthew Smidt
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
15.
Vermont – Nick Washuta
A post shared by UVM Athletics (@uvmathletics) on
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
16. Georgetown – Nick Marrocco
Hoya of the Week: Nick Marrocco @HoyasMLacrosse #HoyaSaxa pic.twitter.com/u88OvJ1Zei
— Hoya Equipment (@HoyaEquipment) April 11, 2016
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
17. Johns Hopkins – Brock Turnbaugh
- Head: Under Armour Headline
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
18.
Marquette – Cole Blazer
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid Length
19. Penn – Reed Junkin
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
20. Penn State – Colby Kneese
- Head: STX Eclipse 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
Bonus: Just Outside Top 20
When I first started this post Princeton was in the top 20 but they fell out with a loss. Nevertheless, we’ll keep them here in our goalie stick setup post.
Princeton – Tyler Blaisdell
A post shared by Princeton Men’s Lacrosse (@princetonlax) on
- Head: Brine Eraser 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack Length
Conclusion
There you have it – 21 goalies, 21 stick setups. Let’s recap the numbers.
Head:
- STX Eclipse 2 – 7
- STX Shield – 4
- STX Eclipse – 3
- Warrior Nemesis 2 – 3
- Under Armour Headline – 2
- Brine Eraser – 1
- Brine Eraser 2 – 1
Mesh:
- 12 Diamond – 17
- 17 Diamond – 4
Shaft:
- Attack Length – 13
- Mid Length – 8
Right away we can see with the introduction of the STX Eclipse 2 goalie head, many NCAA goalies have made the upgrade to the latest and great. However there are a few goalies who hanging onto the STX Eclipse still.
I think the thing that surprises me the most out of all these numbers is the number of goalies using the STX Shield – 4.
I’ve played around with the Shield and I found it way too heavy for my liking. But that’s why each goalie is unique.
Also interesting to see a few goalies using the Brine Eraser and Brine Eraser 2. I had heard that the Brine Eraser was one of the most underrated heads out there but in all honesty I haven’t played with it.