When this proposal was made back in 2014 for the 2015 season, there was a lot of anxiety and pushback against the mandate, with a number of reasons invoked. Certainly the process was not nearly optimal, as we covered in depth at the time. Part of it was the belief it would lead to a more physical approach by the players themselves by those with long-time experience in the sport and knowledgeable about the difference between the Girls’ and Boys’ rules and spirit of how the game was to be played. And it was certainly fair to say that there was some element of a male-dominated Board of Directors in Gainesville telling women what they should think without much input from them.

Yesterday, the New York Times carried an article written by Bill Pennington (LINK) that was a recap of the five year study cycle conducted by the University of Florida, headed by lead researcher Dr. Daniel Herman, and the report indicates, in Dr. Herman’s own words quoted in the article “nothing but good news.”

In the article, USA Lacrosse’s VP Ann Carpinetti called the study “compelling and very notable” and said she expected it to spawn considerable discourse nationwide. USA Lacrosse, which co-funded the study along with the National Operating Committee for Standards on Athletic Equipment, has not issued a headgear recommendation (this paragraph is from the article).

This is significant because USA Lacrosse offered testimony back in 2014 that was certainly taken as being against the mandate in Florida due to reasons that can be found in the FLN articles back then.

There was a presentation made yesterday to the American Academy of Pediatrics and there will be a USA Lacrosse Sport Medicine Symposium on this upcoming Wednesday and Thursday to present the findings.

We have reached out to Dr. Herman and hope he will be available before the USA Lacrosse presentation, and if so, hopefully will do an interview with us.

We’ll update the story this week as more information is released.

Here’s stories from our coverage back then (some were written by Brian Davis and some by Lee Roggenburg):

FHSAA Helmet Decision Lacking In Support In Many Corners, But Not All -Written on June 13, 2014. LINK

Orange County Public Schools System Is the Epicenter of the Helmet Rule Controversy! Written on June 19, 2014. LINK

FHSAA Girls Lacrosse Advisory Panel Voted Against Helmets-Written on June 20, 2014. LINK

FHSAA Issues New Statement On Unpopular Heavy-Handed Helmet Mandate-Written on June 24, 2014. LINK

Deconstructing The FHSAA’s Latest Press Release of 6/24/14 – Written on June 27, 2014 LINK

Helmet-Oriented Emails Begin To Come To Light – Written on July 16, 2014 LINK

Florida’s Entire Helmet Fiasco Predicated On Ridiculous Data and an Informal “Voice Vote” – Written on July 16, 2014 LINK

Larger Data Gathering Effort Does Not Support FHSAA Or Orange County Statistics On Girl’s Concussion Rates – Written on July 18, 2014 LINK

Florida Girls’ Headgear Mandate Study Released by UF – Concussion Totals are Down – Written on October 9, 2021 LINK

NFHS Girls Lacrosse Chair Pens Letter to FHSAA and OCPS On Helmets – Written on September 24, 2014 LINK

Travis-Sham-Mockery at the FHSAA Board; Pulling Helmet Mandate Was Never On the Table – Written on September 29, 2014 LINK

US Lacrosse Issues Statement on Florida Head Gear Ruling – Written on September 29, 2014 LINK

Paul McCord – Five Reason’s Why FHSAA’s “Helmet Mandate” has Nothing to do with Safety – Written on October 2, 2014 LINK

FHSAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee Minutes Show NO DISCUSSION OF HELMET ISSUE – Written on October 3, 2014 LINK

Helmets? Headgear? Headbands? Leaderless FHSAA Approves Them All! – Written on December 1, 2014 LINK