SOUTH BOISE, Idaho — As USA Hockey enforces a nationwide requirement for neck guards, the local youth hockey community at Idaho IceWorld is adapting and prioritizing player safety in the wake of this new directive.
- USA Hockey will mandate neck guards for players under 18 starting August 1st.
- IceWorld's hockey pro shop, LAX ID, experienced production delays for neck guards, as they were back ordered after Adam Johnson's death.
- A diverse range of neck guards are available for purchase, including options such as shirts, neck straps, and other innovative designs.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Kory Scoran is the Head Hockey Coordinator at Idaho Ice World, working with young players under the guidelines of USA Hockey. The former Idaho Steelheads player grew up in Canada, where neckguards were mandatory.
"When I was a kid, we grew up wearing neck guards but not mouth guards, and then we would come play a tournament in the US, and we would all try to take off our neck guard, and the coach would be like, 'What are you doing? Put the neck guard on,'" says Scoran.
Neck guards have not been required by USA Hockey until this week.
Adam Johnson, the professional hockey player who was killed last October during a game in England, is not the first player to suffer an injury from a blade to the neck. However, his tragic death was the catalyst that reignited neck safety discussions around the world.
"Every 4, 5, 10 years something like this sort of happens, but this was the most severe, and they revisited what needed to be done and made it mandatory," says Scoran.
So, as of August 1st, all players under the age of 18 will be required to wear neck protection on the ice, a timeline that accounts for supply chain and production delays with neck guard equipment. An issue that Lax ID Manager Patrick Hamilton noticed quickly after Johnson's death.
"We ended up ordering more neck guards just to have in stock, and I ordered right away, and we saw quite a surge in sales of them, and then I went to order more, and as soon as I went to order more, a lot of them were on back order for months and months," says Hamilton.
Hamilton has seen a surge in neck guard purchases at their Idaho IceWorld location. The mandated equipment is not a pad but rather a special type of fabric designed to protect from lacerations that could be caused by a skate's blade.
"We have a lot of shirts like this that have an integrated neck guard in it. It's kevlar fabric, similar to the same fiber or fabric that they use in bulletproof resistance vests," says Hamilton.
They also carry stand-alone neck guards that you strap on your neck.
"And there are some that have cut-resistant sleeves because that's a really common problem as well, getting cuts on the wrists," says Hamilton.
As for adults, the ECHL, the league of the Idaho Steelheads, does not currently require players to wear neckguards. But they have scheduled meetings to reassess their mandates.
