Lacrosse is not only a physical sport, it also features a hard rubber ball traveling up to 45 miles per hour.

Yet only the boys high school lacrosse teams in Ohio are required to wear helmets. The coaches and players in the Northview girls program hope to change that.

The Wildcats’ girls lacrosse team will be the first program in the state to wear helmets this season. The initiative was spearheaded by Northview coach Greg Price.

“When people see us on the field, I think opposing spectators and parents will go to their coaches and ask, ‘Why aren't we wearing helmets?,’” Price said. “It's not even me setting a precedent. What I'm doing basically is just saying I care about my girls enough that I want to do this. And maybe this would make the pathway easier for other coaches.”

In the past, several Northview players have suffered concussions on the lacrosse field, Price said.

“Hopefully, with these helmets, we’ll see a great reduction in player concussions and lost time in the classroom and on the field,” Price said. “Everybody gets dinged in the head throughout the game. So this is just a no-brainer.

“I've seen individuals here and there wear helmets. But I've never seen an entire team wear them. I'm sure it would be out there if any other teams were doing it.”

Northview sophomore Daphne Burnett said she feels more comfortable on the field while wearing the helmet.

“I feel more confident going for the ball and stuff,” Burnett said. “I think that the helmets will definitely help the concussions. I think it's pretty cool that we're the first team in Ohio, and I hope that most teams will catch on and it will become a trend.”

The Ohio High School Athletic Association officially sanctioned boys and girls lacrosse as a spring sport starting with the 2016-17 school year.

Last year, 144 high schools in Ohio had girls lacrosse teams in two divisions. Northview competes in Division I.

While girls high school lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, helmets are not mandated in most states. The only state that requires helmets for girls high school lacrosse is Florida.

“They've tried to separate the girls from the boys, which is kind of ridiculous. The sticks for the guys have a deeper pocket, so they can throw the ball harder,” Price said. “Women's lacrosse is more of a finesse game. But most of the kids don't pick up a stick until they're a freshman in high school. So inherently, they're not perfect. You're throwing a hard ball around, and the passes aren't always good. And you're defending somebody using your stick. There are too many times that kids get bumped in the head. I saw one girl get hit in the back of the head. It wasn't malicious, but she was out for half the season.”

Aside from the potential for concussions from player-to-player collisions, lacrosse utilizes a five-ounce solid rubber ball, and an errant shot or pass could potentially hit a player in the head, causing an injury.

“It's a no-contact, contact sport,” Price said. “The sticks are like anything else. They're up and around people's heads. You're trying to check and you're fighting for balls that are in the air. So it's going to happen. I decided enough is enough. I don't want to put my kids in danger.”

Ottawa Hills girls lacrosse coach John DeMilt said he believes any girl who wants to wear a helmet should be permitted to do so.

“But I’m not convinced a mandate is a good idea,” DeMilt said. “In my 10 years around the game, I can’t recall any serious injuries from getting hit by a ball. So that reason to justify a helmet mandate doesn’t seem to be the real reason behind one.”

DeMilt said he would prefer that the sport's national organizing body take stronger action to keep sticks away from opponents’ heads and strengthen rules against the reckless use of sticks.

“Without those changes, my fear is that because the girls are wearing helmets, referees will be less strict about wild sticks on the misunderstanding that a helmet will prevent head injuries,” DeMilt said.

All Ohio high school boys lacrosse players must wear a helmet with full-face protection, mouthpiece, shoulder pads, arm pads, and gloves.

However, girls teams are only required to have a mouth guard and eye protection. Only the goalie must wear a helmet.

The current prevailing opinion is that girls lacrosse features much less physical contact than the boys version. Price dismisses the notion that adding helmets would make the girls game inherently more physical.

“More importantly, if you have a kid that doesn't know what they're doing, they can harm somebody, not on purpose, just by accident,” he said.

Burnett also said she does not believe the addition of helmets will lead to more physicality.

“I don't think it would get to that point, because we still have [the rules]. There are still a lot of things that you can't do,” she said. “I don't think it will get too aggressive.”

Price said one of his players was injured when practicing with her dad.

“She was playing catch with her dad and she looked away and the ball hit her in the head. She was out for two weeks,” Price said.

Burnett said the players wear eye goggles, but they provided limited protection.

“A lot of people would get hit in the head last year, and the goggles really only protect your eyes, and they don't do too much,” she said.

Price said while the boys are allowed to body check and use their sticks, the girls are limited in those areas.

“There's far more penalties called in women's lacrosse than there is men's lacrosse because they're trying to keep the game safe for the girls,” he said.

Burnett said some of her teammates are still a little uncomfortable wearing the helmets.

“But we're getting used to them. They don't really mess with your vision,” she said.

Price said there is a debate every year about whether or not helmets should be mandated in Ohio. He said Florida has required helmet usage since 2015.

“They have shown reductions in their concussions in practices, games, and tournaments,” Price said. “Some say, ‘Let's not do it because we don't want girls’ lacrosse to resemble the boys’ more physical style.’ We have too many concussions going on throughout the sport in Ohio. We should work to be more proactive and mitigate the chances of a child getting a concussion because we know that they can have long-term effects.”

A local law firm, the Charles Boyk Law Offices, agreed to purchase helmets for the team. The helmets range in cost from $135 up to $175.

“[They] wrote us a check for the top-of-the-line helmet for our girls,” Price said. “I think it's great to have someone in our community who cares about the safety of our kids. I think it's fantastic because they brought this to fruition. It may have taken me another year or two to be able to get the money in order to make that happen.”

The program now has helmets for each player on the Wildcats' varsity and junior teams. The players wore them last week in practice.

Chuck Boyk, an attorney with the local law firm, said he hopes the move will inspire other teams to take similar steps to enhance player safety.

“Charles Boyk Law Offices is happy to provide these helmets to help protect these young women from potential injury,” Boyk said.

The OHSAA did not immediately return a request for comment.

First Published March 4, 2025, 1:00 p.m.