Whats your opinion on wearing face mask?

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Lester - I agree!! Our SS wears one because of a facial injury last year. She doesn't have a choice - parents rule. Our 2nd base wore one for the same reason but stopped this past HS because she was approached at a college camp by the HC questioning the need. This is just one of those things in the sport that I don't "get".

 

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Doesn't Florida's coach wear a helmet in the coaches box????? Hmmmmm isn't that for safety, as it's surely not for style.

 

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The thought process that says " at this rate they will be in body armour" infuriates me enough to make me want to slap someone up side the head . No I'm not for making anything mandatory but to ridicule the players who choose to wear it is macho man BS. With that type of thinking the NFL would still be wearing leather helmets. Athletes change, the game evolves and safety equipment needs to evovle with it.
Personally I like pitchers to wear it . I can see F5 wearing it as they have to creep closer than the pitcher . But not so much the other IF positions. But to each his own, as long as it doesnt interfere with the players performance then whats the big deal . With our HS outfield it should be mandatory lol MD

 

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Well stated Dan, the Macho BS has to go away, tell that to the kid who is getting reconstructive face surgery...

10 years ago One of ours had stitches in her head and the doc said the only way she could play was with a helmet, guess what, she was in the outfield with a batting helmet and her two other teammates out there wore them in support of her, now if I could only find that picture....

 

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That is another funny thing the NCAA conferences do. The SEC mandates that coaches in the coaches box must wear protective helmets, but the players batting helmets DO NOT have to have masks. This past weekend I literally saw 6 hitters take foul balls to the mask off inside riseballs. I even think we saw it happen in an NCAA tournament game this past year.

For all the good things this sport does the people in charge of equipment rules are utter morons.

Doesn't Florida's coach wear a helmet in the coaches box????? Hmmmmm isn't that for safety, as it's surely not for style.

 

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Agree with the comments about the macho BS ... like I said above, my daughter got through her career without one but had so many close calls that I prayed before almost every game she pitched that she wouldn't get hit (no, I never told her this), and I almost couldn't bear to read stories on here or elsewhere about girls who had been hit, because I imagined her (and me) having to go through that ourselves. The threat is real and the consequences could be life-long if not life-threatening.

 

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16U DD always wears her mask while pitching but not when playing 3rd. Makes me a crazy but the high school coach discourages the girls from wearing masks, says they are "playing scared".

 

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For $40 bucks I can prevent multiple trips to an Emergency Room, surgery, disfigurement, concussions, dental reconstruction and blindness. The player can learn to keep her head down and when a mistake is made (forced or otherwise) the penalty is a sharp slap to the face not a trip to the hospital for me and my child. What a great buy.

I can't get the manufacturers to tone down the bats, the organizations aren't going to soften the ball, all I can do is dress my daughter appropriately. The face mask is on for pitchers and crashing corners, no question.

If a college coach passed on her because she wore a mask-then to bad. She found a school that didn't and if she continues to wear it.....they will get 4 years out of her and no injury time to recover from a shot to the face. She'll just pick up the ball the throw the batter out.

 

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At 16u this past season playing in college showcases that featured both 16u and 18u teams, I can count on one hand how many players were wearing masks. One of those players was one of our pitchers. All D1 and D2 pitching prospects were not wearing masks. All D1 and D2 signees and verbals were not wearing masks. Many had mouthpieces, but not masks. If colleges were more receptive to masks I guarantee you more kids would be wearing them. The same people screaming for masks are the same people screaming NOT to nerf the bats. A bit hipocritical, isn't it?

When I started playing slowpitch softball, I can't remember what the pitching distance was but the bases were at 60 feet. The bats were your basic 7046 aluminum. The softballs were .50 or .52 COR with high compression......and then came the TPS made of CU55 Aircraft Aluminum. Other bat companies followed suit and before you knew it guys were hitting the ball over 350 feet. Soon after came a softer ball, utilizing a lower compression and COR, and the bases and pitching plate were moved back 5 feet. Soon after that came titanium, graphite, double walls, triple walls, tungsten, porcelin, cryogenic, fluid-filled, composite, etc. bats. With the new materials the bats could be made lighter so the bat speed increased dramatically. While we're trying to make masks mandatory, why don't we dum the bats down a bit?

Len

 

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college coaches need to lead in this matter by not being critical of players who chose to wear . it will only take 1 televised disaster in the college WS to change attitudes , but that one girl that gets creamed is one too many.

 

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Protective gear was rampant in the CWS. I saw countless hitters wearing elbow protection on their lead arm in case an inside fastball nailed them there. My DD is a 16U pitcher and has been wearing a Rip-it for 3 years and won't take the field without it.

 

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This is just one of those things in the sport that I don't "get".

Totally agree with you.

 

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Dan, we had a televised example of this 2 years ago in the WCWS when the F2 from Baylor broke her face from a foul tip with no batting helmet facemask. The response? Olympic Icon, All Time HR Leader, Div. 1 College Coach Stacey Nuveman, when asked about the use of masks in general, smirks and chuckles a bit when explaining that...

“I don’t like (face masks). I think they’re cumbersome. I tell my (SDSU) girls who wear them, ‘come on, toughen up’.”

THAT IS THE ISSUE!!

Not one college coach, not one Olympic Icon (Hello Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman, Monica Abbott etc!!), not one FP commentator (Hello Cheri Kempf, Michelle Smith, Beth Mowans, Jessica Mendoza), NO ONE came out with any statement of either A.) Support for wearing masks or, at the very least B.) Indifferance to wearing masks!!

Why???? Because the "unwritten rule" of FAR too many college coaches is that masks are a sign of weakness, and "if you're wearing a mask, I'm not going to recruit you to play at my school".

Hey Coach Murphy, what if Jackie Traina had her jaw torn away from a line drive to the face during this year's WCWS Championship? Coach Candrea, what if Kenzie Fowler was put into a coma by a shot to the forehead in one of your televised Regional games? Hey Stacey Nuveman, what if you were shown a video clip of Jolene Henderson having one of her famous change ups drilled back at her, shattering her face and literally losing an eyeball right there in the circle, would you be able to hold back the laughs as you told her to 'toughen up'?!?!

Is that what it has to come to??

I have less than zero respect for Stacey Nuveman, coaches who question the use of a mask at their camp or any of that ilk, however these are candid moments that give a peek behind the curtain, and if you think that every girl and parent of girls watching that day who are at the age and in the process of trying to be recruited to follow their dream of playing softball in college didn't read between those lines, then you're kidding yourself.

I hate it. My DD pitches, and only wore her mask a few times this summer, but I left it up to her. We never talked about it, but I can't be so foolish to not think that some of the factors stated above haven't shaped her decision, and she has been 20 feet from a friend of hers that lost 4 teeth pitching.

I will continue to pray for her, her teammates and her opponents health and safety before every game like I always do, and for the day to come when the coaches will show the character and courage to dispell this stigma sooner rather than later. Since character and courage is what they are asking of our DDs, isn't it?

 

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We were 10u last year, watched our ss almost have her face rearrainged at GAPSS. Hit her facemask so hard that it bounced, hit shoulder and bruised her shoulder. Had she not had facemask, I don't want to think the damage it would have caused.
Interesting though, a few weeks later at Nationals, we watched many teams that not one infielder or pitcher had one on. Most of the CA teams seemed to not wear as much.
I say yes indeed!!

 

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Hey those FACTS are really great....but um.... we are talking FASTPITCH SOFTBALL here not Baseball. The NCAA did a Baseball study on line drives to pitchers, not a fastpitch study... No they are not the same sport. Pitchers in baseball are 150% farther away then a fastpitch pitcher is from the plate.. Leave to the NCAA to do a study on wood bats verse metal bats for baseball than turn around and say "Nope no need for facemasks in fastpitch either"

If they study fastpitch, it would say fastpitch softball, not baseball..And if NCAA does not know the difference between the two , well that helps to explain our educations issues here in the USA.

I had read a softball study some time ago but could not find it. I still think the baseball studies are relevant, though obviously not the same.

 

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Tell them don't worry about what people think, You'll be called worse things by better people and at least will have a beautiful face to show for it......

 

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great post bradwire

 

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As a parent and coach, masks are a MUST! I saw a player this year with braces at 3rd base take a grounder with a bad bounce to the mouth. The inside of her lips were imbedded in her braces. There is no price for safety. $40 is well worth it. I do not like the bulky plastic masks... the metal RipIt for example is a must.

 

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We were 10u last year, watched our ss almost have her face rearrainged at GAPSS. Hit her facemask so hard that it bounced, hit shoulder and bruised her shoulder. Had she not had facemask, I don't want to think the damage it would have caused.

That was my dd. No doubt in my mind that without the facemask it would have been a life altering injury. Thanks to the facemask and my over protective wife she just had a nasty bruise on her shoulder from the ricochet. After a few tears and a few minutes to clear her head she finished the rest of the tourney playing ss and never once showed fear of the ball. One of my dd's many funny comments came on the way home " Hey, I stopped at least a double with my face." I think joking about a near serious injury is much better than a trip to the emergency room.

 

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Dan, we had a televised example of this 2 years ago in the WCWS when the F2 from Baylor broke her face from a foul tip with no batting helmet facemask. The response? Olympic Icon, All Time HR Leader, Div. 1 College Coach Stacey Nuveman, when asked about the use of masks in general, smirks and chuckles a bit when explaining that...

“I don’t like (face masks). I think they’re cumbersome. I tell my (SDSU) girls who wear them, ‘come on, toughen up’.”

THAT IS THE ISSUE!!

Not one college coach, not one Olympic Icon (Hello Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman, Monica Abbott etc!!), not one FP commentator (Hello Cheri Kempf, Michelle Smith, Beth Mowans, Jessica Mendoza), NO ONE came out with any statement of either A.) Support for wearing masks or, at the very least B.) Indifferance to wearing masks!!

Why???? Because the "unwritten rule" of FAR too many college coaches is that masks are a sign of weakness, and "if you're wearing a mask, I'm not going to recruit you to play at my school".

Hey Coach Murphy, what if Jackie Traina had her jaw torn away from a line drive to the face during this year's WCWS Championship? Coach Candrea, what if Kenzie Fowler was put into a coma by a shot to the forehead in one of your televised Regional games? Hey Stacey Nuveman, what if you were shown a video clip of Jolene Henderson having one of her famous change ups drilled back at her, shattering her face and literally losing an eyeball right there in the circle, would you be able to hold back the laughs as you told her to 'toughen up'?!?!

Is that what it has to come to??

I have less than zero respect for Stacey Nuveman, coaches who question the use of a mask at their camp or any of that ilk, however these are candid moments that give a peek behind the curtain, and if you think that every girl and parent of girls watching that day who are at the age and in the process of trying to be recruited to follow their dream of playing softball in college didn't read between those lines, then you're kidding yourself.

I hate it. My DD pitches, and only wore her mask a few times this summer, but I left it up to her. We never talked about it, but I can't be so foolish to not think that some of the factors stated above haven't shaped her decision, and she has been 20 feet from a friend of hers that lost 4 teeth pitching.

I will continue to pray for her, her teammates and her opponents health and safety before every game like I always do, and for the day to come when the coaches will show the character and courage to dispell this stigma sooner rather than later. Since character and courage is what they are asking of our DDs, isn't it?

Bradwire, this is one of the most insightful post that I have ever read.... nice job at expressing it and it would be interesting to know those answers.
It is absolutely amazing the difference in attitude from 3-4 years ago. When we mandated it 4 years ago, we were called "Big Brothers" or worse names. I want to thank Mick Foster from Eastwood high school who took the time to write an email to me about the experience of his daughter getting one in the last inning of the last game of the season. Eight surgeries, numerous counseling sessions and countless nightmares later (by Dad and probably the daughter too), she continued to pitch at a high level with a facemask. His email was the final evidence that caused us to mandate it. Mick, we have countless players and parents that thank you for being part of this decision.
I agree, tell the college coaches to go to hell if they have a problem with it and hopefully your DD will play against them in the same league and kick their butts.