4 days ago
St. Thomas Aquinas' Finch and Campbell are the Broward Lacrosse Players of the Year
St. Thomas Aquinas stuffed its lacrosse trophy case once again in 2024 and now the Raiders have some individual awards to add to it, too.
James Finch and Jordan Palmer are the Miami Herald's Broward County Lacrosse Players of the Year.
Finch, a junior, is the Herald's Boys' Lacrosse Player of the Year for the third straight year after helping the Raiders win their fourth state title. The attack scored 76 goals and added 76 assists as the engine of one of the top teams in the state.
Finch also had 34 ground balls and seven takeaways for St. Thomas Aquinas, which won yet another state championship with a well-rounded style of play.
'It was the greatest feeling ever, I was bawling my eyes out,' Finch said. 'It was always the talk I heard from the 2022 team, how good it was to win state. Their grit, their determination. That's the team we wanted to model ourselves around.'
Finch is already orally committed to Ohio State and is closing in on 200 goals in his career, topping 50 in each of his first three seasons in Fort Lauderdale. Most importantly, he now has a championship on his resume after narrowly missing out in each of his first two seasons of high school.
Palmer, the Herald's Girls' Lacrosse Player of the Year, was one of the most well-rounded players in the county and helped the Raiders come just one goal short of a trip to the final four. The midfielder had 69 goals, eight assists, 30 ground balls, 12 caused turnovers and 53 draw controls this season to wrap up her career at St. Thomas Aquinas. The Raiders reached the Region 4-2A championship, but came up just one goal short against Vero Beach.
The senior was especially dominant in the postseason, scoring 13 goals in the region playoffs, including two in the season-ending loss to the Indians. Palmer scored 14 hat tricks, including at least four goals in five of her last six games in high school and seven in a thrilling shootout win against Bradenton Manatee—another region finalist—in March.
Palmer is heading to UCF in the fall and will keep playing lacrosse as a club sport there.
'We did so well and played for each other the whole season,' Palmer said. 'We won a lot of really close games and games we haven't won in the past. Overall, it was amazing.'
