Gorham goalie Sawyer VonderHaar, right, talks to her teammates after making a save during their game against Scarborough on Thursday. VonderHarr appeared to be the only player who chose to wear a mouth guard on the field during the game. As of this season soccer players no longer required to wear a mouth guard in Maine. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Mt. Ararat senior Islah Godo, a captain of her girls’ soccer team, is not a fan of mouth guards. She doesn’t like the way they feel, or the way they hinder the ability to communicate with teammates on the field. She especially doesn’t like how referees enforce the rule about wearing them by either sending a player off the field or issuing a yellow card when the mouth guard is improperly worn.

Those days are over. Beginning this season, mouth guards are a suggestion for Maine high school soccer players, but not a requirement.

“I like the new rule; it’s gives players a bigger sense of freedom to do what they want and also allows for an option that is not a requirement, which I think is important,” Godo said.

The Maine Principals’ Association released a memo Wednesday afternoon outlining the change in the rule and the reasons behind it. The MPA acted on a request from the Maine Soccer Coaches Association to revise the rule, which had been in place for more than 20 years. Among the reasons the MPA cited for the change are a lack of evidence that wearing mouth guards reduces concussion risk, sanitary issues from improper care of mouth guards, and lack of consistency in enforcement of rules regarding proper mouth guard use.

This is the second change to a rule involving safety equipment made by the MPA this fall. Field hockey players are no longer required to wear protective eyewear. Like mouth guards in soccer, the goggles that were mandatory equipment from 2007 through last season are now optional but encouraged.

Across the state, players say they agree with the latest rule change. Ethan Berry, a senior captain on the Mt. Ararat boys’ team, said he will not be wearing a mouth guard.

“I think making them not required allows for the players to feel like they get a choice. While mouth guards provide protection, there were also restrictions. Mouth guards restricted talking, players wouldn’t wear them, and players were getting unnecessary yellow cards for not being properly equipped,” Berry said. “At college levels and professional levels of soccer, mouth guards are not required, and that level of play is way more intense and competitive.”

The rule change has been met with overwhelming support from players and coaches. When asked to comment, Falmouth boys’ soccer captain Sam Yoon grinned from ear to ear. Yoon said the way mouth guards restrict communication on the field outweighed what little protection they provided.

“If I pass to a teammate and I’m calling ‘Man on! Man on!’ but I have something in my mouth hindering my speech, how would he know?” Yoon said before Thursday’s season-opening game at Cheverus. “He might turn into a defender and could get injured.”

Now in his 38th season coaching the Falmouth boys, Dave Halligan coached before and after mouth guards were mandated. Halligan said anecdotally, he can’t recall a downturn in concussions or mouth injuries in the seasons players wore mouth guards. The one mouth injury he recalled, said Halligan, was to a player wearing a mouth guard. When he took the mouth guard out, two front teeth went with it.

“I’m glad (the MPA) took the time and listened to the arguments and the science,” Halligan said.

Jeanne Zarrilli, the longtime coach of the Gorham girls, said she’s also glad to see the rule changed. Players took their mouth guard out to communicate with teammates, then were penalized, she said.

“For me, it’s been such a distraction,” Zarrilli said.

Chris Sementelli, the program manager for MaineGeneral Sports Medicine and a longtime high school athletic trainer, serves on the MPA’s sports medicine committee. He agrees with the decision to make mouth guards optional, for a number of reasons.

Unless the mouth guard is custom-fitted by a dentist or orthodontist, it is rarely worn properly, Sementelli said. The science supporting their use to reduce the risk of concussions is not there, he added, noting that Maine was one of the last states to require mouth guards in high school soccer.

“We haven’t seen big spikes in concussions or dental injuries in states where they’re not required,” Sementelli said. “It’s become a joke on the sidelines. How small can you make it? How well can you hide it?”

Ellery Herrick, a senior midfielder on the Gorham girls’ soccer team, is one of the few players still wearing a mouth guard.

“I’ve had so many concussions, I just don’t want to chance it,” she said. “It’s just a comfort thing.”

During her team’s season-opening game Thursday against Lawrence, Cony junior midfielder Kate Sirois used her mouth guard at various points.

“When I play the ball, I keep it in my mouth for safety reasons,” Sirois said. “But when I’m running, (the mouth guard) makes my mouth dry and it’s hard to speak, so I keep it out.”

New Cony girls’ soccer coach Michael Sweeting, a native of England, was surprised to learn that mouth guards were used in Maine high school soccer.

“In England, I’ve never seen mouth guards in soccer,” Sweeting said. “It was definitely unusual for me, to come over here and that we needed mouth guards… I can understand the logic (of mouth guards), but now it kind of feels more like my game.”

Dave Dyer of the Kennebec Journal contributed to this report.