US Lacrosse instructed coaches and officials — including women's officials, since goalkeepers of both genders wear helmets — to address the issue in pre-game routines with teams and that players were not permitted to play if wearing the decertified helmets. The national governing body also disseminated information as it became available to its 430,000-plus members.
While both companies disputed the decision, saying the models passed in their own independent testing at accredited labs, they also said in statements they would work with NOCSAE to reach a resolution and provide consumers with information on their respective websites and by calling customer service numbers.
Cascade on Thursday said it was confident a retrofit could be the answer and that it had sent technicians to NOCSAE's laboratory this week to test what it called "a viable and simple modification." It said a solution could come in the "coming days" and asked R owners to register helmets and to get more information at R.CascadeLacrosse.com.
Oliver said Cascade had been working on a solution that could potentially be applied at retail dealers, and could also be implemented for new helmets that have yet to ship. Warrior did not respond to request for more comment.
"We've done a lot of our internal testing on the solutions we have in place and feel very confident that we can find a solution but it has to go through the NOCSAE process," Cascade spokesperson Steve Jones said earlier in the week. "We're confident we can get something out there for everyone."
Check back to LaxMagazine.com for more on this story, and visit USLacrosse.org for an FAQ on the matter.
CASCADE R AND WARRIOR CONT.