Mad River Youth Soccer Player Places 4th in State Science Fair

Bryar Brandvold, a seventh grade student at Jacoby Creek Charter School, Bayside California recently traveled to Los Angeles, California to compete in the 2007 State Science Fair. His project, “Should Soccer Players Wear Protective Headgear?” was evaluated in the product science division where he placed fourth out of over 50 projects. He qualified for the state science fair by receiving first place honors at the Humboldt County Science Fair in March.

His project evaluated the protection provided by three commercially available soccer headgear products. Concussions are not uncommon in competitive soccer from head to head, head to ground and head to goal post collisions and each year one player in the US dies of a soccer related head injury. He assessed the protection provided against blunt impact to both the front and side of a mannequin model by measuring the compression and deformation. He found that each of the products decreased the effects of impact and two models manufactured by Full 90 were particularly effective against blows to the temporal region. This is especially important because this region of the skull is very thin and susceptible to fracture which can result in life threatening epidural hematomas. He also had junior competitive level players evaluate the headgear for playability and found that one of the models (Full 90 Select) was rated higher than their unprotected heads in comfort and quality of heading. Since his project he has been wearing headgear in spring league games and has not found it to adversely affect his game. It wasn’t that long ago when helmets were a rarity in sports like hockey, skateboarding and bicycling; now not donning a helmet for these endeavors would seem absurd. Bryar’s data would suggest a shift toward more widespread utilization of protective headgear in soccer.