My 5 year old son plays soccer. He's no Beckham or Pele but he is learning the game and he loves it. I can barely get him to wear a helmet to ride his bike and now this.
Massachusetts will be the only state in the U.S. to have this rule if it passes. Our soccer teams from PeeWee to college age will be mocked and laughed at. Might as well just change all the soccer team names to the Massachusetts Retards.
Try not to laugh at us to much. With Ted Kennedy and John Kerry in office it probably will pass..
Chrystal
Idea of soccer helmets kicked around •Physicians say headgear protects the growing brains of younger players By RUSSELL NICHOLS and RAJA MISHRA Boston Globe
Like football and hockey players, soccer players would have to don helmets on the field to protect their heads under a new legislative proposal in Massachusetts. No other states appear to have passed a similar law, Massachusetts lawmakers and physicians said. The measure would cover everyone from peewee leagues to college teams.
With strong evidence of long-term neurological damage among a portion of veteran soccer players, some soccer officials, parents and physicians around the nation have recently been pushing for more safety measures for young players, including an outright ban of heading, an integral part of the world's most popular sport.
Physicians say requiring headgear for youth soccer players was not unreasonable because collisions between players and with the goal posts are the most frequent causes of soccer head injuries.
"There's pretty good evidence that growing brains are more susceptible to injury," said Dr. Lyle J. Micheli, director of sports medicine at Children's Hospital Boston. "It might make sense for kids under 14."
But some soccer coaches, trainers and parents see the measure as unnecessary meddling by politicians.
Allison Canale, 44, of Rutland, Mass., who has been involved with soccer for 12 years as a coach and parent, said children don't have enough collisions to warrant helmets.
"It's a contact sport from the hips down," she said, adding that her young players probably would feel hampered on the field by headgear. "It's already difficult for me to get the boys to wear the ankle guards."
A 1997 study done by Northwestern University's medical school found that 2 percent to 3 percent of soccer injuries are to the head, the same rate as in football. A 1992 Norwegian study found that 35 percent of active soccer players in that country had abnormal brain scans, and another study in that country of retired professional players found a third of them had brain atrophy, or a shrinking of brain tissue that results in behavioral and cognitive problems.