A rule change to keep an eye on
National federation says goggles are no longer mandatory
Severna Park defender Carson Smith felt relieved upon hearing the news. She could see again.
That’s because the National Federation of State High School Associations announced July 3 a rule change that would terminate the mandatory use of goggles as soon as the upcoming 2020 fall season. The word “may” inserted in the new rule — “goggles may be worn by all field hockey players” — allows athletes the freedom to make their own choice.
The rule had formerly stated that all field players shall wear eye protection that met certain manufacturing standards.
Old Mill athletic director Heather Arnold, who coached the Patriots’ field hockey team for seven years and currently serves as Region 4A East director and represents District V on the state field hockey committee, believes the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association will implement the new NFHS rule.
As a member of the state field hockey committee, Arnold had been asked to share the NFHS rule change with Anne Arundel County coaches.
“They never should have been required to wear goggles to begin with,” Arundel coach Carrie Vosburg said in a text.
While the alteration might seem minor
at first glance, some field hockey players and coaches are delighted by the change. Many field hockey players report losing their full range of vision when wearing goggles.
“Obviously, safety is more important than being able to see the field, but in my opinion, I play better without goggles,” Smith said. “… I like playing without goggles, so I’m really excited to not have to wear them.”
The NFHS Board of Directors made wearing eye protection mandatory in 2011 “with the intent to lessen the risk of catastrophic eye injuries.”
The rule was not widely popular. At the time, the managing director of USA Field Hockey, Laura Darling, disavowed the rule change.
A study conducted by researchers at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Fairfax (Va.) County Public Schools and the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that “nationally mandated protective eyewear results in a greater than three-fold reduced risk of eye and orbital injuries in high school field hockey players without increasing rates of concussion.”
Conversely, in 2011, The Virginian-Pilot reported some players actually suffered eye injuries because of their goggles. One player needed surgery after a defender’s stick struck her in her goggles, cutting her brow.
Ultimately, NFHS said that because goggles with corrective lenses don’t exist and there is no national standard for field hockey goggles, and because the wearing of goggles prevents the wearing of corner masks on penalty corners, “the Board believed it was time to make the rule permissive in nature rather than mandatory,” said Julie Cochran, director of sports and liaison to the Field Hockey Rules Committee, in the NFHS release.
Chesapeake defender and rising senior Abby McFarland reckons goggles did more harm than good. In the Class 3A state final during McFarland’s freshman year, she recalls a teammate getting hit across the face by another player’s stick.
“Her goggles failed to protect her. It hit her in the nose. She had bruise marks because of the goggles,” McFarland said.
Century coach Terry Duryea thought the rule was “overkill” when implemented nine years ago, and that goggles obstruct players’ views. “But now, it has just become part of the game. To take them away seems strange to me,” the 15-year coach said. “… It seems backwards because it is taking a level of protection away from a kid.”
Duryea said she’s seen players get hit with the ball in their goggles and thought, “I am glad they were wearing them because it would have been a lot worse had they not been.”
She is curious to see how many players will continue to wear them, but she does expect the use of goggles to fade out over time. Severna Park coach Shannon Garden estimates in her time as an official and coach that most of the balls to head she witnessed came on the corner shot. She recalls one girl losing an eyebrow from a hit.
“Girls try to hit the backboard, but they’re not pros, and even pros don’t,” Garden said. “So you had girls running straight at basically a line drive — field hockey balls are like a billiards ball, hard — and yet, they weren’t allowed to wear masks for that.”
Smith plans to don a full corner mask the next time there’s a penalty play, as she does when she plays for her club team, SPark Field Hockey. She polled all her club teammates, as did Garden of all the Severna Park players. Each one of them have shed their goggles for good.
Elsewhere, not everyone feels so certain right now.
Arundel’s Lana Hamilton, a first team All-County pick who racked up a team-high 34 points last regular season, said she can foresee a season in which officials call dangerous play fouls more often to compensate for goggle-less players.
“High school is a little bit different than club field hockey. There are some people that don’t have a lot of experience and do have trouble with high swings or when driving the ball hitting people in the face,” said Hamilton, who plays for Freedom HKY club team. “I haven’t decided yet, but I probably won’t be wearing them. Easier to see.”
McFarland, on the other hand, believes her fellow Anne Arundel players will be up to the task of adapting to a mostly goggle-less field of play.
“I’m not worried about our safety,” she said. “I think high school players understand the distance we need to keep to play the best game possible.”