Choices for your team

[stegmakk]

With the recent questions as to why certain players on teams do not wear the team issued helmets, but instead wear the riddell version.
I think it has been stated and known that the reason is due to previous head injuries, and that the riddells are thought to be much more protective.

With this general understanding, then why do coaches make deals with other companies? Your job is not just to win games, but to help these kids become men. They are your kids really as a coach, so why not protect them to the fullest...at least where it really counts, their heads?

Not complaining or flaming, just trying to understand the logic of a coach that says, "sure bobby, you can wear the riddell because it is more protective...the rest of you must wear this new warrior helmet"...

[spenny]

because they wont let me drop them head first from the scissor lift any more.

seriously, i think most kids would rather have the helmets the other cool kids wear. we hand out buckets to the new kids and you should hear them complain.

i also think that unless you have a history of concussion the other helmets are fine, but i do see your point

[CTLaxer]

A number of things can come into play that results in this happening. For one, money. Sometimes companies can offer better deals on certain helmets or colors or whatever. When you have a strict budget, this can be a deciding factor in the kind of gear you provide. Also, no matter what kind of helmets a team provides, there will always be a couple of kids that want to wear helmet X instead of helmet Y. A lot of times they want to wear what Mikey Powell wears (just see how many questions there are about visors on helmets after that picture of him came out) or whoever their favorite player is. Some just don't like the look of one helmet and prefer another. Sometimes a player has a head too big/small to fit into the sizes the team provides, so they must provide their own custom sized rig. Some prefer the vision provided by certain brands/styles.

These are just a few reasons I can see and have come across. I provided my goalies with Riddell's this year, after we broke the first Triad XP we had within an hour of practice. One of my goalies like the riddell so much they decided to buy it from the team rather than searching for one of their own.

[aof09lax]

These new riddel helmets are really protective, but I think all the helmets are quite satisfactory (to say the least). Also, most the other helmets are, for the most part, lighter. Most importantly, many teams, especially schools, rent out their helmets. They are not going to buy new helmets because riddel's helmets are a little more protective. School's, too, won't change companies if they have been relying on one for a while. I do think that kids should be allowed to use their own helmets IF it is the team's colors. :nono: