Lewiston’s Mohamed Gabow removes his mouth guard as he celebrates scoring a goal during the Class A state championship game in November. Maine high school soccer players are no longer required to wear mouth guards, the Maine Principals’ Association announced Wednesday. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Maine high school soccer players won’t have to wear mouth guards to go on to the pitch this fall.

The Maine Principals’ Association announced Wednesday that it is dropping the mouth guard requirement, revising a rule that had been in place for more than 20 years.

The revision recommendation came from the Maine Soccer Coaches Association, which has tried to change the rule for several years. The MPA Soccer Committee sent the recommendation to the MPA Sports Medicine Committee, which approved the revision and passed it on to the MPA Interscholastic Management Committee, which voted Wednesday to lift the requirement, beginning this season.

A news release sent by the MPA on Wednesday said the coaches association “cited a number of reasons, including a lack of evidence that mouth guards reduce concussion risk, sanitary issues from improper care of the mouth guards, lack of consistency in enforcement of proper mouth guard use, and players not keeping them in their mouths or chewed to the point that they offer little protection of the teeth.”

“I know that I’m not someone who’s read all the studies,” Mt. Blue girls soccer coach Griffin Conlogue said, “but a lot of the studies show that the concussion thing wasn’t really that much of an impact for it. And so with it not being that big of a deal for that, I’m pretty happy for it.”

The coaches association’s request was to “strongly encourage the use of mouth guards, but not require them.”

The MPA emphasized its encouragement that they still be worn.

“It is important for schools to know that the MPA strongly recommends that soccer players continue to wear a well-fitted mouth guard to help prevent oral injuries,” the news release said.

ONE LESS DISTRACTION

The players were as happy as the coaches to hear that the mouth guard requirement was being dropped.

“I haven’t seen them that excited in a long time,” Mt. Blue boys soccer coach Zac Conlogue said. “They were very excited about it. For me, I just think … it was really a distraction. Like, sometimes, you know, we were so worried, ‘Oh, did this kid forget a mouth guard?’

“So, for me, it’s like, it’s one less thing to worry about. So in that sense, I’m happy there. We can focus more on soccer and getting better as a team, rather than equipment-wise.”

Lewiston boys soccer coach Dan Gish it also helps officials because they no longer need to worry about giving yellow cards to players not wearing mouth guards.

“The officials that I’ve talked to, you know, they’re having to enforce it and then give cards for it,” Gish said. “And we have a cumulative card policy. And, you know, that it’s tough to manage for them. It’s tough to manage for us.”

Gish added that the mouth guard rule ended up taking “the focus off of concentrating on the safety of the players, as far as, you know, if you have to make a flagrant foul call …”

Coaches are glad players still have the option to wear mouth guards.

“I’m happy that they made the change and changed it to be strongly recommended,” Griffin Conlogue said. “I think that for those of the kids that feel more secure wearing them, whether they don’t want to worry about their teeth getting chipped or any damage to their mouth or tongue or anything like that, it’s definitely great.”

Jonas Culleton, a senior on the Buckfield boys soccer team, said he likely won’t wear a mouth guard, but he isn’t against wearing one, either.

“I have a mouth guard that’s kind of, like, thinner, so it doesn’t really affect, like, drinking or talking or whatever that much, but I probably won’t wear it in the future,” Culleton said. “Maybe (for) a couple of games I’ll wear it, but I probably will stop wearing it just because it will make it easier to, like, breathe and talk.”

Mt. Blue senior captain Kaden Smith, who was born in Maine but lived in Ireland for four years before high school, said he didn’t wear a mouth guard when he played soccer overseas.

“In my experience, and from what I’ve seen elsewhere, it seems that it’s very, very uncommon for people to wear mouth guards in soccer, or for it to be required for people to wear mouth guards in soccer,” Smith said. “I’m not fully aware of the standards in other states, but I know that outside of the U.S., it’s not a requirement in many areas.”

BETTER COMMUNICATION

Coaches and players said that on-field communication should improve without mouth guards.

“Like, go watch, you know, MLS, or if you go watch collegiate soccer in our state, if you go watch private school, prep school soccer, mouth guards aren’t mandatory there,” Buckfield boys coach Kyle Rines said. “And you just hear a very much higher level of communication without mouth guards. So, you know, at practice, it’s sometimes difficult to get your team to communicate effectively with a mouth guard.

“… I think you’re only going to see teams communicate better and therefore play better, that’s why I think it’s going to help grow the sport.”

Monmouth girls soccer coach Gary Trafton said many players don’t have fitted mouth guards, which makes it difficult for them to communicate with each other on the field.

“Yeah, and it’s hard just to get the kids talking, anyway,” Trafton said. “They would have that mouthpiece in, it makes it even more difficult. But we practice a lot with them on and without them. So, I mean, the girls, I told them they can wear them if they want to, but I’m not sure if we’ll see too many with them. But that’s their choice.”