In the early phases of the helmet fiasco here in Florida our senior writer, Lee Roggenburg, did his weekly podcast on ESPN 106.3 and discussed the  “vote” that was taken at an Orange County Athletic Directors’ meeting in which a helmet mandate was bullied through in Orange County.  This Orange County vote took place before the FHSAA meeting and was the starting point for all of this nonsense.  You can listen to that Podcast here – PODCAST.  It’s important to note that Russell Wambles, architect of the entire FHSAA helmet fiasco was invited to participate on the podcast but was too busy circling the wagons.

The Orange County Director of Athletics, Matthew Fitzpatrick,  was not a bit happy with us and sent us an email to let us know that our representation of the “vote” was way off base.  He wrote,

“…every OCPS Athletic Director voted in favor of mandating the US Lacrosse optional soft helmet for Orange County Public Schools, regardless of whether or not the FHSAA passed their recent resolution. Not only did the OCPS AD’s vote in support of requiring the soft helmet option, but the OCPS Principals also voted unanimously to support such a move. The measure is also supported by the Certified Athletic Trainers of OCPS. I would love to know the source of your information, because it is so far off base that it almost seems like an intentional error meant to disparage.”

You can read his entire email in this post – “Orange County Public Schools System Is the Epicenter of the Helmet Rule Controversy!”  His email was impressive.  We thought, “Wow, 100% consensus.  That must have been one heck of a presentation!” When we pressed him on the issue, the validity of a vote with zero detractors, and the data he used to make such a successful argument he double downed.

“Brian,
I was at the meeting, and the vote was unanimous. If there is a silent AD that objected, I don’t have any idea who that would be. I welcome dissent, debate and discussion, so there is no reason for someone to remain silent. The Principals’ vote was also unanimous. For you to say it was was anything less is clearly incorrect…by a long shot.”

So, using the Sunshine Law, we requested the minutes of that meeting along with the vote tabulation and the data that was used in making the determination. Suffice it to say, we are a little disappointed.  But not at all surprised.

Mr. Davis, Please see the response below from our Athletic Department in regards to your request. “Our County AD meetings are informal…it is not our practice to keep minutes of our meetings. The vote that we took on mandating the optional US Lacrosse soft helmet was also informal--when asked if everyone supported the move, everyone answered in the affirmative. I asked if anyone disagreed with the move, and no one spoke up or voiced any disagreement–we essentially took a voice vote. The OCPS Principals also approved in similar fashion. The data that our FHSAA representative, Russell Wambles, shared was that our concussions in lacrosse this past year were a little more than 2:1…with girls without helmets sustaining more the 2X the amount that the boys lacrosse players sustained wearing helmets.”

So a watershed moment took place as Orange County became the only county in the nation (this was before the FHSAA adopted the rule) to mandate helmets for girls lacrosse and it was just an “informal” little get-together with Russell Wambles and his incredible, unbelievable, ridiculous data.  Even though Mr. Fitzpatrick appeared reluctant to supply us with the actual data, Lee Roggenburg didn’t ascend to the position of FLN’s “Senior Writer” on his good looks alone.  He obtained the data and published it earlier today. Seriously, take a moment to peruse the data that Wambles used in the FHSAA vote (but apparently was unavailable to us when we asked for the Orange County records) “Helmet-Oriented Emails Begin To Come To Light.” Eight schools reported having either one or zero concussions in girls’ lacrosse this season.  But Winter Park reported 7 (they also reported 20 in football, twice as many as the next highest number reported) and Edgewater reported 6.  So while nine other schools reported a grand total of eight concussion these two schools reported 13.  So instead of investigating that enormous disparity in the diagnosis and reporting of concussions he decided that everyone needs to go buy a helmet and wear it.  One could easily dismiss the two outliers and find that less than one concussion per team, which is less than boys lacrosse and less than football, is OK. In short, I think the student-athletes in Orange County and around the state deserve something more than and “informal” vote by an uniformed group of AD’s whose boss stood up in the middle of the room and publicly asked if anyone disagreed with him.  He might as well asked if anyone was in the mood to commit professional suicide.  “Any takers? No? Ok, then let’s go to happy hour.” What a professional organization. I’m tempted to call this a joke.  But it’s not a joke.  These folks control huge amounts of taxpayer dollars and make decisions that effect thousands of student-athletes.  The fact that Fitzpatrick had that audacity to write us an email demanding that we take down our podcast because the A.D.’s vote and the Principles’ vote were both “unanimous” is shocking.   This whole kerfuffle is built on data that an actual business would have laughed out of the board room,  but now a few thousand girls are going to be donning helmets that potentially put them at greater risk of injury. If you’re not effected by this helmet issue I suggest you still be very concerned.  If this is how business gets done then one A.D. like Wambles can make another ignorant decision that does have a direct effect on you.  Then what is the course of action? Who is going to stand up in one of Fitzpatrick’s “informal A.D. meetings” and commit professional suicide on your behalf? We at FloridaLacrosseNews.com support player safety.  In fact, if US Lacrosse finishes their research and determines that the game and those who play it are better served by wearing these helmets we would get behind that.  Russell Wambles is not US Lacrosse.  His “data” is laughable. To be against the heavy handed approach taken by Orange County and FHSAA to mandate our girls wear helmets is NOT to be against player safety.  The institutions that are put in place to govern athletics in our state should be held accountable to follow proper procedures and make decisions based on actual, identifiable data. It would be wise for Orange County student-athletes to keep in mind that regardless of what happens at future FHSAA meetings, unless something major changes in Orange County, they will be wearing this helmet.  If you have concerns over the faulty data or the  “informal yet unanimous” vote taken in Orange County just shoot the Orange County Director of Athletics a note.  We’d love to hear what he has to say on the matter.   matthew.fitzpatrick@ocps.net