First time ever posting here, but a worth while topic finally and a highly misunderstood one at that. First having been highly involved in the fight against "helmets" in New [lacrosse] I will say that helmets do not prevent concussions. Even the people who wanted helmets in New [lacrosse] begrudgingly admitted that fact and it is fact. Next, the Florida High School Athletic Association in July mandated "helmets" for the spring of 2015. If that mandate had remained it would have prevented out of state schools from playing Florida schools since hard helmets are prohibited from being worn by field players per US Lacrosse rules. However in their late September meeting the FHSAA changed the ruling to "soft headgear" instead of "helmets" since soft headgear is allowed within the US Lacrosse girls rules. In their ruling the FHSAA also said they are aware that helmets, or soft headgear, do not prevent concussions. The FHSAA also passed the following to the soft headgear September ruling, "the Board also approved an amendment that will require these products to meet American Society for Testing and Materials performance standards, when available." Since there currently is no standard yet for girls lacrosse soft headgear it is very much up in the air as to whether or not girls will be required to wear soft headgear in the spring of 2015 in Florida. Even the FHSAA in their amendment specificcally said "when avialable". Per US Lacrosse rules players may already wear soft head gear if they elect to. The Florida girls lacrosse advisory committee, made up mostly of Florida HS coaches, vehemently opposed the FHSAA mandates for the record. One of their many good reasons for this opposition was that in the Florida heat wearing this equipment could, and probably would, cause heat stroke. | 
