1. THUNDER LAX HELMETS

2. Policy – Thunder team helmet policy is helmets are required for all incoming freshman and any age player that is new to high school level lacrosse. Helmets are optional for returning Thunder players and any players new to the program who have previously played high school level lacrosse with another program. Board/coaches unanimous on wanting all players to wear helmet. We were Split on requiring for all

3. Why – In the last year and half we have had three girls concussed playing lacrosse. With our program continuing to grow we expect this number to increase. If there was anything we could do about it to mitigate this we felt we should.

4. The Solution - Cascade LX – Only recently was this option to mitigate available.
“Stick or ball contact is the primary mechanism of injury to the head in women's lacrosse. In men's lacrosse, a contact sport, most concussions arise from player collisions”
US Lacrosse: “The ASTM standard is the first ever performance standard for women's lacrosse headgear, developed to help reduce impact forces associated with stick and ball contact in women's lacrosse.”

5. Sample Case – Xavier high school
Sample Case – Xavier high school. In past three years went from 8 concussions with no protection to 3 with soft gear to 0 with Cascade helmets. (Not only program with these results). State of Florida (3 years) New York City Brown University (entire team) Fall Ball

6. Controversial Subject
No Guarantee to stop concussions. No helmet in existence can
Goggles required as of 2004 / Mouth pieces?
US LAX-Rule changes last 5-10 years. Wait and see
A lot of resistance in college
We believe a requirement will come down eventually
We can do something about this now
Parents encouraged you to not leave this up to your player

7. Video (6min)

8. Questions? Thank you!

12. Sources: US LAX from website (undated)
US LAX from 2011
Future Medicine Editorial April 2017
New York Times article Nov 2017
Newsday Video March 2017