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2018 All Traditional Team – NCAA D1 Men’s Lacrosse

Welcome to the 2018 All Traditional Team! Very few men’s players still use traditional sticks, and at the D1 level, there are typically only a handful of players who still use leather. For those that do use leather pockets, there is the annual honor of making the LaxAllStars.com All Traditional Team, and 2018 is a good year for top level players using the traditional style of netting!

You can find links to all of our historic All Traditional Team lists at the bottom of this post, but before that, we get to the guys who are rocking leather in 2018. To spice things up, Jim Fenzel created trading card style throwback graphics for our two Traditional Players of the Year.

It only seemed appropriate for these two seniors, and living legends of the college traditional game!

D1 Men’s Lacrosse – 2018 All Traditional Team

First Team

To make the First Team you need to be a big-time player for a D1 men’s lacrosse team, AND use traditional for the entire season.

Shack Stanwick (Attack  – Johns Hopkins) – There has been a Stanwick on every single All Traditional Team since its inception in 2012. All the pockets have been Pitas, and they’ve all been strung up by papa Stanwick. I’m hoping he strings up 10-20 pockets for Hop players after Shack graduates. We should not have to wait for his grandkids to get there to see the pocket make a showing. Maybe some of the younger guys will pick up the tradition in the meantime? A man can hope, a man can hope. Shack was once again the QB for Hop, and he played with trad all the time. Props to the first family of traditional pockets in college lacrosse. It’s been a pleasure, but we get to see just a little bit more of it as the NCAAs roll on! As long as Hop breathes, traditional is still around.

Shack Stanwick is my 2018 All Traditional Team Offensive Traditional Player of the Year! For using traditional for his entire senior year (and his entire career), and for being a mainstay on the All Traditional Team, Jim Fenzel has immortalized Shack with a trading card style portrait. Note the Stanwick Family Pita. Details.2018 All Traditional Team NCAA lacrosse

John Sexton (LSM – Notre Dame) – Sexton had a bootlace traditional in a StringKing head last year when I saw him in New York City, but it looks like he changed it up to a white string and brown leather number this year, like he has used in years passed, and gone back to the Evo head. Sexton is a product of Lincoln-Sudbury HS in Massachusetts and while he’s been trying to convert some of his ND teammates to trad, no luck yet. Maybe he’ll leave a couple trads around for future players as a parting gift to the program. Please do that, John. Sexton only plays with traditional, he has gotten many sticks strung by Yoshitaka Ando, and he’s a terror on the field playing defense, or in transition. He’ll be missed as a big time member of this team, and he is a fine young man, destined for great things in this life.

Thanks to emassstrings for the info on Ando stringing John’s pockets, and what kind of pocket Sexton has used over the years. I got one thing a little wrong and he was all over me about it. He’s passionate, I respect that.

John Sexton is my 2018 All Traditional Team Defensive Traditional Player of the Year! For using traditional for his entire senior year (and his entire career), and for being a mainstay on the All Traditional Team, Jim Fenzel has immortalized John with a trading card style portrait. Trad life forever!2018 All Traditional Team NCAA Lacrosse

Second Team

To make the Second Team you need to use traditional at some point. It’s a pretty low bar, but that’s the way it goes when so few guys use leather. There is no third team, and honorable mention? Forget about that.

Brendan Bomberry (Attack – Syracuse) – Bomberry was using a Pita style pocket, and there was even a little color thrown in there with some orange strings down the middle and sides. Lefty Bombz (who is a righty) dropped a sick between the legs goal with his traditional pocket, but he switched the mesh in a rainy game vs Virginia and then stuck with mesh, dropping him off the first team. Here’s to hoping more Syracuse guys get back on the trad train in the future, as there used to be a couple each year. Bomberry has used mesh in the past, but we loved seeing him give trad a little love this year. Thanks RightyLeatherBombz!

Matthew Giampetroni (Midfield – Duke) – Giampetroni was on the All-Traditional Team last year, and he’s back this year, and still using a traditional stick. Shoutout to Jason Myers, who first noticed MG using trad once again this year, this time against Richmond. A lot of seniors on this year’s all traditional team, and that means there are plenty of holes to fill in 2019. Like the guys above him, I hope Matt leaves a little bit of himself in Durham in the form of a couple traditional heads. Maybe someone will pick one up next year! I’ll keep my hopes up.

Sean Bannon (LSM – NJIT) – Dark leathers, white laces, and a traditional pocket on a long pole – John Sexton is no longer alone! Sean is a redshirt freshman out of Pascack Hills, NJ and is one of the very few underclassmen rocking leather in his stick. Sean, you’re my favorite underclassman because of this. Sorry, Tehoka, switch your stick up and we can talk. Sean is also taking face offs, and I haven’t seen a player do that with a trad since Cal Paduda and Jeremy Thompson of Syracuse. Hoping Bannon keeps it up for his entire career, because I’m looking for first teamers for 2019 and Bannon is looking good!

Jonah Swigart (LSM – Syracuse) – Steely Dan Khalil strung up a little leather in a Nike head for Swigart, and it got some love during the middle of the season. I’m really hoping Swigart gets more run for the Orange next year, and that he does so using a traditional stick. Dan – get this man like 6 trads to break in this summer. The 2018 All Traditional Team must live on in 2019 and I’m feeling like the Force is strong in this one. Make it happen! Maybe find some other young Orange bucks and get them on board too. Please?

And… that’s it!

Kind of sad that only 6 players used traditional pockets in D1 lacrosse this year, but it’s more than some other recent seasos. As stringers continue to learn how the 2010 rules can be tweaked and used to their advantage, I hope more guys get back on the leather and lace train. Will it happen? It’s doubtful, but a man can hope. Most of the 2018 All Traditional Team graduates this year, so it could be a lonely season in 2019. Or not! We will have to wait and see.

Curious as to who has been on this list over the last couple of years? Check out the links below to find other D1 (and some pro) players who use, or used, traditionally strung pockets.

2017 College Lacrosse All Traditional Team – Lacrosse All Stars

2016 had so few players using players (only 2 that I can remember), I don’t think there was an All Traditional Team. It was a sad time.

2015 All Traditional College Lacrosse Awards

2014 College Lacrosse All Traditional Team

2013 College Lacrosse All Traditional Team

2012 College Lacrosse All Traditional Team

2012 Professional Lacrosse All Traditional Team – Lacrosse All Stars

We’ll be back again next year for more! Another HUGE thanks goes out to Jim Fenzel for his old school trading card style graphics. It made the 2018 All Traditional Team a little more special, and it seemed appropriate to make the players into art work, as these players all use art work in their pockets. That’s just science. And arts. Wesleyan would be so proud.