The Association Of Penalties Among Girls’ Lacrosse High School Athletes With And Without Headgear

Stick and player contact in girls’ lacrosse is prohibited. However, stick and player impacts remain the most common mechanisms of head impacts and concussion at the high school level of play. To mitigate magnitudes of stick and player impacts, headgear meeting ASTM standards was introduced in girls’ lacrosse. However, the onus remains on the officials to appropriately administer penalties that result from illegal contact during game play. Concern exists that headgear has altered officials’ rules enforcement, thereby adversely affecting player safety. PURPOSE: To examine the proportion of head impacts that were penalized by an official among teams that wore headgear (HG) and teams that did not wear headgear (NHG). METHODS: Head impacts were captured via game video and analyzed by trained coders across 127 girls’ high school lacrosse games (HG: 43; NHG:84) played in the Spring 2021 season. All games were randomly selected from the NFHS Network between January 1st- July 1st. Head impacts resulting from player or stick contact were identified and whether an official called a penalty was determined. A chi-square test was conducted to compare the proportion of penalties by HG and NHG groups. RESULTS: There were 220 player and stick impacts to the head identified across 127 games during the 2021 lacrosse season (HG: n=109, 49.5%; NHG: n=111, 50.5%). Of these impacts, 79 (35.9%) were administered a penalty by an official on the field. There were no differences in the proportion of penalties administered among HG (n=39, 35.8%) and NHG groups (n=40, 36.0%; p > .05). Of the 31 head impacts resulting from player contact, 7 (22.6%) were administered a penalty (HG: n=4, 57.1%; NHG n=3, 42.9%). Of the 189 stick-to-head impacts, 72 (38.1%) were administered a penalty. CONCLUSION: Headgear use was not associated with the proportion of penalties related to player- or stick-to-head impacts administered by officials. These findings do not support the notion that headgear use in girls’ lacrosse alters the likelihood of officials penalizing game play associated with impacts to the head. However, officials administered penalties for only a third of head impacts caused by stick and player contact. This study highlights the need to better understand the shared roles that headgear and officiating play in girls’ high school lacrosse.