Christine Galeucia’s daughter plays lacrosse for Wahconah Regional High School, a central Berkshire County public school with a student population around 450.
“For years, the parents and I sitting on the sidelines have been talking about how ridiculous it is that our girls are wearing skirts and eye protection with goggles and a mouth guard, but that's the only protection that they have- Where then the boys are wearing full gear, helmets, they have chest protectors and the whole nine, and they're wearing shorts,” she told WAMC.
Galeucia says she’s coming off the sidelines after her daughter suffered a concussion during a game.
“She and another player were running at each other, and I guess she got hit in the temple with the eye protection, with the eye gear, the goggles, but she got a direct hit to the temple, which made her see black, and she took herself off the field and sat down and iced her head," she explained. "And then right after that, she felt nauseous. She went on the bus to go home, and she felt sick. I met her off the bus. She was in tears. She had to be physically helped to the car.”
The incident disturbed Galeucia enough to start asking questions. She found out that the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rules, which follow the standards set by the National Federation of High Schools, don’t require female lacrosse players to wear helmets.
“The big excuse that I get is that the game started in the 1930s and we're keeping up with tradition of having them wear skirts and not have gear," said Galeucia. "But it's the year 2025, and we have concussions happening. Football player children wear helmets, wrestlers wear helmets, softball players wear helmets because they have hard balls whizzing at their heads- So why with lacrosse, boys lacrosse is wearing helmets, why aren't girls lacrosse players wearing helmets as well? They have the same hard balls living at their heads.”
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
Wahconah Principal Aaron Robb told WAMC he was aware of two incidents this year in which a girls lacrosse player sustained head injuries, and noted that official rules say players are allowed to wear “soft helmets,” if they prefer.
In a statement to WAMC, Robb said:
“It’s our understanding that very few players in the state actually wear them. We are bound by [Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association] rules, which also subscribe to the National Federation of High Schools. The MIAA could request a rule change from the NFHS. That is a lengthy process. If the appeal to change the rule was successful, it’s our estimation we would not see any rules changed until a couple of years from now.”
“Girls lacrosse is a wonderful game, and I'm still trying to understand all of the rules and the fouls and everything that gets called," Ellen Lattizzori, another parent of a Wahconah lacrosse player, told WAMC. "But these girls love to play and it's fun to watch. But when you see an injury happen, you sort of sit there and kind of recoil and wonder, would things have been different if we just even had like a soccer-type shin guard, or a light elbow pad like you would see in rollerblading, or even a light helmet. A concussion is a concussion, and is essentially brain damage. So anything that we can do to even try to soften a blow to the head can potentially protect these girls from injury down the line, or repercussion from injury down the line.”
Still, Lattizzori wonders if rule changes could have unintended and equally concerning consequences.
“If we were to utilize padding more like the boys’ protection, more like the boys, does that change the checking rules?" she mused. "I don't know how many girls would want to play if they were able to get hit from the back with an opponent's stick, hit in the head with the opponent's stick. I don't want to change the nature of girls lacrosse in and of itself because the rules are different, but there needs to be a little more protection than the goggles and just and the mouth guard.”
But Galeucia worries that without helmets mandated across the board, student athletes will have to overcome peer pressure and the threat of targeting should they choose to wear helmets on their own.
“They also get bruises from the stick and stuff, but bruises go away," she told WAMC. "When you get hit with a stick at a high pace or a ball coming at you quickly in the head, that's a serious injury that we're dealing with. So, it's time to do this.”
