Above- If your team wears any of the headgear you see above, it will not be legal by US Lacrosse or NFHS rules beginning in 2017.
On May 21st, US Lacrosse announced that a headgear standard for women’s lacrosse had been approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The announcement represents the culmination of more than two and a half years of research and work by US Lacrosse to develop a helmet criteria that is specific to the mechanics of girls’ lacrosse. This is of particular importance to the state of Florida due to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) June 2014 decision to mandate headgear for all girls’ lacrosse participants.
This past season, headgear seemed to cause no more good than a headache for Florida lacrosse. Players, parents, and officials complained for a variety of reason. There was concern that helmets on players would lead to more aggressive and dangerous play. Others worried that cases of heat exhaustion would rise. Still others were perplexed at the FHSAA’s decision to mandate headgear in response to concussion issues despite the fact that not a single shred of evidence showed that the chosen headgear could reduce concussions in any way.
From what I saw, the presence of headgear in FHSAA games certainly wasn’t good but it wasn’t as bad as many people expected. Thankfully, I did not see a great number of girls go down from overheating (but I also wasn’t present at any practices that often occur at the hottest time of the day) and I did not notice a sharp increase in aggressive play. From the onset, though, it was very clear that the helmet idea wasn’t thought through very well. The headgear clearly did not work well with the required goggles. It would often fall off during play causing officials to halt the game. Even worse, the helmets would impede the protective eyewear (which has actually been proven to protect lacrosse players) from fitting properly, possibly creating very dangerous situations.
The problem was that the helmets were not designed with lacrosse in mind. This is exactly what US Lacrosse representatives told the FHSAA before and after they made their decision. According to US Lacrosse Vice President of Lacrosse Operations Ann Carpenetti, fitting with the eyewear was a primary concern in developing the new standard. Headgear that meets the standard will be one of two types; it will either fit with a variety of goggles or be paired with a specific goggle model.
The FHSAA approved these 7 “soft helmets” in the fall of 2014.
Another facet of the standard won’t make many lacrosse players happy; all headgear that meets the standard must cover the majority of the head, not just the band across the forehead and right above the ears. This decision was the result of the ASTM research that found no single area of the head is most susceptible to injury. That could be bad news for most of Florida considering the majority of schools opted to buy head gear that did not cover the full head. In fact, the FHSAA approved seven models of headgear and four of them do not cover the full head!
These four helmets, the most common chosen by teams, will certainly fail to meet the new ASTM standard. We don’t know if the other 3 approved by the FHSAA will meet the standard.
Carpenetti said the standard will be in the rule book by 2017 or 2018, at which point headgear will remain optional (unless you happen to be governed by the idiocy of the FHSAA). This means that any headgear that is worn in 2017 or beyond must meet this standard, known as F3137, to be legal for play under US Lacrosse or NFHS rules. The standard will be formally published July 1st of this year, at which point testing of headgear to see if it meets the standard may begin.
As of now, we do not know how effective (or ineffective) the helmets were. We may get a better picture later this summer when a study known as the RIO Study publishes its data regarding lacrosse. The RIO Study, which is led by Dr. Dawn Comstock at the University of Colorado, collects injury data from a random sample of NFHS high schools across the nation for a variety of sports, including girls’ lacrosse. Once published we will be able to compare the rate of injury in Florida from the 2015 season to the rate of injury from prior seasons and to the rate of injury from other states, but it is important to remember that the sample size of Florida schools will be small and other factors may influence the data (such as US Lacrosse certified officials and the adoption of the proper 4-card procedure). So, stay tuned for that analysis in July or August!
more than two and a half years of research and work by US Lacrosse to develop a helmet criteria that is specific to the mechanics of girls’ lacrosse. This is of particular importance to the state of Florida due to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) June 2014 decision to mandate headgear for all girls’ lacrosse participants.
This past season, headgear seemed to cause no more good than a headache for Florida lacrosse. Players, parents, and officials complained for a variety of reason. There was concern that helmets on players would lead to more aggressive and dangerous play. Others worried that cases of heat exhaustion would rise. Still others were perplexed at the FHSAA’s decision to mandate headgear in response to concussion issues despite the fact that not a single shred of evidence showed that the chosen headgear could reduce concussions in any way.
From what I saw, the presence of headgear in FHSAA games certainly wasn’t good but it wasn’t as bad as many people expected. Thankfully, I did not see a great number of girls go down from overheating (but I also wasn’t present at any practices that often occur at the hottest time of the day) and I did not notice a sharp increase in aggressive play. From the onset, though, it was very clear that the helmet idea wasn’t thought through very well. The headgear clearly did not work well with the required goggles. It would often fall off during play causing officials to halt the game. Even worse, the helmets would impede the protective eyewear (which has actually been proven to protect lacrosse players) from fitting properly, possibly creating very dangerous situations.
The problem was that the helmets were not designed with lacrosse in mind. This is exactly what US Lacrosse representatives told the FHSAA before and after they made their decision. According to US Lacrosse Vice President of Lacrosse Operations Ann Carpenetti, fitting with the eyewear was a primary concern in developing the new standard. Headgear that meets the standard will be one of two types; it will either fit with a variety of goggles or be paired with a specific goggle model.
