Face masks?

[chapmaja]

My first thought was absolutely there should be a requirement to wearing face protection. (I almost had a slow pitch pitcher get drilled in the face tonight, missed her ear by about 2 inches. Ironically, the opposing pitcher pitches in a catchers mask because he took a line drive to the nose last season and had to have surgery to repair the nose.)

With that said, if there is not a manufacturing standard in place for these facemasks like there is for batting helmets then the rule needs to be looked at.

We had a similar push about 15 years ago for pole vaulters to be required to wear helmets. The problem was that there was (and still isn't to my knowledge) a helmet specifically designed and tested for pole vaulters to wear. One school mandated helmets and a student athlete was wearing a skate board helmet, landed on the mat poorly and flew off the mat, hitting his head on the standard. Despite wearing a helmet, he suffered a significant concussion. His parents settled out of court with the school district that mandated the helmet use. The reason the district settled was that they were requiring equipment to be worn that was not designed for what it was being required for.

Since there is not tested and approved safety mask for the purpose, the KHSAA might be opening themselves up to legal action if someone is injured or killed while wearing this piece of protective equipment.

With that said, I would still much prefer a pitcher or corner infielder wear a mask of some sort. I don't think it should be mandated because parents should require it of their children. Sadly we see to many cases of "I don't want to wear it" turning into "I wish I had been wearing it."