Biddeford’s Alivia Aberle takes a shot on goalkeeper Mariah Villandry during a preseason practice. Rule changes this year mean goggles are optional, but masks during corners are mandatory. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The season hadn’t even started, but Massabesic field hockey coach Katherine Fournier already knew one thing she would like about this fall.

“I’m so glad I won’t be nagged about goggles anymore,” Fournier, who’s also the president of the Maine Field Hockey Association, said with a laugh. “I’m so over that. Some coaches were very, very against having goggles so it’s nice to … kind of see that work pay off.”

Indeed, high school field hockey this season will have a new look with players able to ditch the protective eyewear they were required to wear since 2007. Goggles are now encouraged by the Maine Principals’ Association but not mandatory, and as the season begins players are excited not to have to wear gear they deemed uncomfortable and unsafe.

“I am happy to see them go,” said Biddeford senior forward Ayla Lagasse, who also plays for Coastal Field Hockey in the offseason. “We haven’t used goggles for travel since I’ve been playing. It’s so much easier. It helps you see the ball a lot better and they don’t hurt your head.”

The goggles are not required in college or club play, but they became a requirement in Maine eight years after a player suffered an eye injury when she was hit by a teammate’s stick during a drill. The goggles became required nationally in 2011, but the national high school association changed its stance in 2020. And as more and more states dropped the requirement, eventually leaving only Maine and Rhode Island enforcing it, coaches in the state started pushing for Maine to follow suit.

“We heard the plea for that a few years ago from high school coaches, and so for the last few years that’s been one of our focuses,” Fournier said. “There were a few loud coaches that were really opposed to them, but also, concerns about safety came up. You’re wearing a piece of safety equipment that can cause a safety issue.”

Biddeford’s Ayla Lagasse takes a shot during a preseason practice. Players and coaches are happy goggles are no longer mandatory, saying they caused as many safety issues as they prevented. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Coaches said the goggles were counterproductive. They limited vision and made it harder for players to track the ball and avoid contact with other players.

“They can see (now), they have peripheral vision,” Gorham Coach Becky Manson said. “Kids were getting into side-on-side collisions, laterally, running into people. I had players get concussions from that, not being spatially aware because they have their head down and they’re blocked.”

The goggles were meant to protect the eyes from sticks and balls hit in the air, but Thornton Academy Coach Lexie Carter, who played for the Trojans before graduating in 2010, said field hockey’s evolution made that less of a factor.

“(With) more of these fields switching to turf, it’s just such a different game, and a much lower game,” she said. “The skill is a lot more finesse, there’s a bit more control with hits and things. It’s not as unpredictable as surfaces, so I think the ‘no goggles’ (option) is coming at a nice time.”

Players found the goggles to be a nuisance. Sanford senior midfielder Audrey Payeur said her plastic goggles would fog up when she played. First-year Scarborough coach Kyla Wigant, a former player and 2015 Poland graduate, said she’d be distracted by water that gathered on the bars on rainy nights. And Cheverus junior midfielder Joey Pompeo said she constantly had to mess with her goggles to get them in place.

“I’d sweat so they’d come down on my face. I’d always have to be adjusting them, wrapping the strap around the back,” she said. “It’s just something I’m glad I don’t have to deal with anymore.”

Biddeford’s Hannah Loranger wears a mask practicing corner drills in the preseason. Defensive players are now required to wear mask during corners. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

As a result, a new piece of headgear is being introduced. On corners, where players are closest together and the hardest shots are taken, defenders will wear full face masks for the duration of the play, and be able to take them off as soon as the ball is cleared out of the 25-yard area.

While goggles had their detractors, the masks – which are worn in club and college – have been better received.

“I feel like I can go out 100% with it on,” said Payeur, who as the flyer for Sanford is the defender on corners charging toward the receiving player on the insert. “I think players wanted to (wear them), and it helps with safety and all that stuff, knowing that they’re protected when the ball’s coming at you. … (With goggles) when you got hit it was on your cheek or something, I feel like no one ever really got hit in their eyes, so they weren’t doing much.”

That said, for players who don’t play year-round, a new type of face gear has been an adjustment.

“I’m so used to the goggles. Just having the masks, I’m kind of a little distracted,” Windham senior back Deanna Cooper said. “They’re OK. I’m getting used to them. … It has that thick foam all the way around, so that’s sliding because obviously we’re hot and we’re sweaty while we’re playing.”

The masks, though, offer protection of the full face, which allows players to play less tentatively when defending.

“I do find they play a little more fearlessly. Because even with the goggles, I’d have players do this,” Windham Coach Cory DiDonato said, imitating a player reaching in with a stick while leaning away, “because they’re so scared of the (lower) half of their face. … On a corner with the masks, there’s no flinching.”

It’s weird at first, but players know it’s for the best.

“That’s been a difficult transition for me,” said Biddeford’s Lagasse, who didn’t defend on corners for Coastal but does for the Tigers. “But I feel much safer, that’s for sure.”