Eye goggles unpopular with field hockey teams MPA mandates protection as safety precaution

Maine’s high school field hockey players have gone ga-ga over their goggles.

Well, not really – most of the players asked in an informal survey said they weren’t in favor of the new eyewear and never felt in danger in the first place – but with a new rule that went into effect this year, everyone has to wear them.

“We were thinking, this stinks,” said Belfast senior midfielder Christine Hill, one of three Lions tri-captains. “I didn’t want to wear goggles. They’re so ugly and it’s one more thing to obstruct your view. Then we realized, everybody else has to wear them, too.”

The Maine Principals’ Association voted last year to go along with a recommendation from the National Federation of State High School Associations that called for players to wear goggles.

Belfast coach Allen Holmes said in his 35 years of coaching he’s had just one player who was hit above the eye, but that injury was because the ball took a bad hop off the ground.

“I think that it boils right down to the liability aspect,” he said. “If we’re going to play the game and the MPA is going to endorse the game, they’re taking responsibility for injuries, and they want to protect themselves.”

The goggles can be either plastic or wire, but must meet standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Most Maine high school players are wearing the cage-style goggles with bars across the frames. Some have clear or tinted plastic frames.

There are pros and cons with each style. Players said they sometimes have trouble seeing the field with the cage goggles. Others who have tried the clear goggles said the plastic can fog. The tinted goggles are only good on sunny days.

The Belfast players each have a pair of cage-style goggles and a pair of tinted goggles. The tinted styles were purchased for the players thanks to a donation from Holmes Greenhouse in Belfast for $30 per pair.

Holmes said it should be up to coaches to teach good stick skills and referees to be consistent in calling high-sticking fouls.

“If the coaches and the officials could have worked closely together, no one would have been hurt and we wouldn’t have been in the situation we’re in now,” he said.

The goggles themselves could be a hazard, Holmes said, if a player isn’t adjusting well to them or if players in the normal course of play bump heads and there’s an injury from the goggles. The Belfast girls said they felt the cage goggles restricted their peripheral vision and they felt they were running into each other at practice.

And it’s tough to wear the goggles on particularly warm days, Dexter senior Jana Kenney said.

“It’s nice having that protection but it gets annoying when sweat’s dripping down your face,” she said after a recent game. “We’ve gotten used to them because we played with them all summer. It’s definitely a lot different, playing with them. But I don’t like them.”

Most teams seem have adapted well – after all, everybody has to wear the goggles.

“We’re still playing field hockey and we’re doing it to the best of our ability,” Holmes said. “And it is safer. Who could question that it wouldn’t be safer?”

There is one hidden benefit.

“They make you look more aggressive,” Belfast’s Briana Curry said with a smile.