The MLL Pros and Their Goalie Stick Setups
By Coach Damon
Last updated: June 20, 2021
With the large variety of goalie heads, goalie shafts, and goalie mesh on the market today, the possibilities for a goalie stick set-up are near endless.
When you factor in the varying tape jobs and shafts lengths, the amount of possible stick setups grows even further.
But what do the pros use?
Each pro team is surely sponsored by one of the major lacrosse equipment companies – Brine, STX, Warrior, and thus the goalies get their free pick of the gear offered by that manufacturer.
But even within manufacturers there are several great pieces of equipment and its not always the case that every goalie picks the same. A lacrosse goalie is as unique as his/her gear.
Let’s have a look at a bunch of different current and ex-MLL goalies and their goalie stick setup.
Edit: Updated 1/25/17. Updated Adam Ghitelman’s stick setup with his current. Kept the old setup below for those interested.
- Head: STX Shield
- Shaft: STX Shied 7075 Lacrosse Goalie Shaft
- Mesh: 12 Diamond JimaLax Goalie Mesh
- Shaft Length: Just slightly longer than an attack shaft
A funny note here is that Drew Adams actually helped Maverik lacrosse create the Maverik Base / Maverik Base 2 goalie head. I guess he’s not a fan of his own work since he uses the Warrior Nemesis 2 as his gamer.
Edit: 1/29/2017 Updated Tyler Fiorito’s stick to his latest setup. He switched to the Brine Eraser 2 strung up with 12D Hero Mesh. I kept old setup down below.
- Head: Brine Eraser 2
- Shaft: Brine Clutch Attack Shaft
- Mesh: 12D Hero Mesh
- Shaft Length: Just slightly longer than attack shaft
- Head: Brine Eraser
- Shaft: Brine Clutch Attack Shaft
- Mesh: 20 Diamond Goalie Mesh
- Shaft Length: Just slightly longer than attack shaft
Edit: 5/6/2017 Updated JRod’s stick setup. Kept his old one in place. He’s on the Blaze now too.
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Shaft: Warrior Burn Pro
- Mesh: 12 Diamond Goalie Mesh
- Shaft Length: Attack shaft length
Edit: Jordan Burke retired from the MLL on January 29th, 2016.
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Shaft: Warrior Burn Pro Goalie Shaft
- Mesh: 12 Diamond Goalie Mesh
- Shaft Length: Just slightly longer than attack shaft
Edit: Jesse Schwartzman retired from the MLL late 2015.
In the photos I have of Charlie Cipriano he’s using the setup I list above however Charlie’s cousin emailed me personally to let me know this is actually the current setup he uses:
- Head: STX Shield
- Shaft: STX Shied 7075 Lacrosse Goalie Shaft
- Mesh: 12 Diamond JimaLax Goalie Mesh
- Shaft Length: Just slightly longer than an attack shaft
As you can see with just 13 different MLL goalies, we have 13 unique stick combinations.
As it turns out most pros prefer a shorter shaft length which keeps the stick nice and light for making saves.
Just over half, 7 out of 13, of these goalies use the Warrior Nemesis 2 as their head of choice. Due to the high velocity shots in the MLL these goalies prefer the stiffness of that head vs. the flexibility of other models. When a ball strikes the top of the Warrior Nemesis 2 the ball won’t bend the head and still go into the goal.
The number of ways you can setup your stick are endless so what’s important is that you find what works for you.
And also what’s in your price range, since you’re paying for these items unlike the pro’s who are sponsored by the lacrosse equipment companies.
Until next time! Coach Damon
What stick setup do you use? Let me know in the comments.
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do Charlie Cipriano he is a incredible goalie he is on the hounds
Thanks for the suggestion. I added Charlie Cipriano. I could only find some older photos of him when he was on the Outlaws. We’ll see if he switches up his stick setup this year when he plays for the Hounds.
Some of these definitely need to be updated as many are inaccurate
Yeah I’d imagine some switch up their gear from when I wrote this article. Which ones do you see as needing updated?
Haha Charlie Cip is my cousin. I can help you with that stick setup changes if you would like I see him all the time
Awesome! Thanks Danny. Definitely would be into that! Next time you see him ask if he’d be cool with me interviewing him for the blog. I’m sure he’s pretty busy so its a long shot but I thought I’d throw it out there to see if it was possible. D
these goalie stick setups need to be updated there way off!
They probably do need to be updated. Which ones are off?
Brett ,
most are of you should check current photos and listen to suggestions like austin is off scott roders, ghitelman etc… i think cipriano is the only accurate one
Jrod is using a nemi 2 now and I believe a krptolyte but it could be a burn pro.
Cool. Thanks for that update Ryan. I’ll get the post updated.
You should add stuff for the new goalies in the league like Parker fairey (GOAT) and blaze riorden
I’m surprised someone used the Maverick base in the pros. I got that head and it just felt awkward, reminded me a lot of the Warrior Zoo I used first starting out. Personally I like the Shield on an attack length Maverick WonderBoy strung with ECD Hero 12D
I doubt they use the Base anymore. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about that head. You like the Shield? Felt too heavy for me. I’m an Eclipse guy (and now an Eclipse II guy).
Ghitelman uses an eclipse II now. Not sure on John Galloway as I believe he said he preferred the flexibility of the eclipse.
Yeah, this post was written a long time ago before the Eclipse II even came out. I’ll have to do another one for the current MLL setups.
Do a current MLL goalie wepon of choice and string
You should do an updated posts of this with all the new goalies in the MLL and the NCAA. It would be interesting to see how many older goalies have switched over to the Eclipse 2. `