Steele Stanwick (born September 12, 1989) is an American former professional lacrosse player who played for the Ohio Machine and Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse. He played his NCAA Division I career at the University of Virginia. He won the Tewaaraton Trophy and the Jack Turnbull Award.

Family

Stanwick was the fifth of eight children born into a lacrosse family, the son of Wells Sr. and Dori Stanwick. His grandfather, Tad, played at St. John's College and wrote a book on the game. All seven of his siblings played Division I lacrosse, and there was at least one Stanwick playing college lacrosse every year from 1998-2018. His oldest sister, Sheehan, was a 4x All-American at Georgetown, holding their career record for points, and is currently a lacrosse analyst. His other two older sisters, Wick and Coco, also played at Georgetown. His older brother, Tad, played at Rutgers, serving as a team captain. His younger brother, Wells Jr., was an All-American at Johns Hopkins, finishing his career second in school history in assists. Younger sister Covie attended Boston College, graduating as the school's all time leading scorer, and youngest brother, Shack, played at Johns Hopkins. All siblings except for Tad were multi-time All-Americans.^[1]

College career

Prior to joining the Cavaliers, Steele attended and played lacrosse at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland, where he led the team to the MIAA championship, recording 37 goals and 35 assists. A highly rated prospect coming out of high school, Steele was selected by Inside Lacrosse as the 2008 #1 high school player in the country.^[2]

In his first year at Virginia, Steele was named ACC Rookie of the Year after setting a points record for UVA freshmen with 58 points (36 goals, 22 assists).^[3] In his second year, he improved his total with 29 goals and 32 assists for 61 points, which was fifth amongst all ACC players that year. That year, Steele was named a Second-Team All-American. In 2011, he scored 32 goals and completed 38 assists, including an unprecedented 20 points over a three-game stretch in the NCAA tournament, leading the Cavaliers to their fifth NCAA championship. Steele was named a First-Team All-American and won the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's best college lacrosse player. He was Virginia's third Tewaaraton winner following Chris Rotelli in 2003 and Matt Ward in 2006.

Virginia was 56 and 14 in Stanwick's four years there, with three straight trips to the final four as well as one national title.^[4]

MLL career

He was drafted 2nd overall in the 2012 MLL Collegiate Draft by the Ohio Machine.^[5] During the 2012 MLL season, he played in 9 games for the Machine and led all rookies in assists with 17.^[6] In September 2017 he was traded to the Chesapeake Bayhawks. Stanwick scored the game-winner in overtime to send the Chesapeake Bayhawks to the 2019 MLL championship game.^[7] He then guided the Bayhawks to their 6th MLL title and was named the MVP of the championship final, scoring two goals and an assist.^[8] This was Stanwick's only MLL title.^[9] Today, Stanwick is an assistant coach to the Johns Hopkins Women's Lacrosse Squad.

Statistics

University of Virginia

Major League Lacrosse

GP–Games played; G–Goals; 2PG–2-point goals; A–Assists; Pts–Points; Sh–Shots; GB–Ground balls; Pen–Penalties; PIM–Penalty minutes; FOW–Faceoffs won; FOA–Faceoffs attempted