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Illinois Youth Soccer bans heading for players 10 and younger

Soccer coach Dwayne Cruz said they stand out whenever he sees them: Children younger than 10 with the skill to head a ball into the net.

It’s the kind of ability that comes only with practice, and that can tilt the balance in a tight game. But Cruz, the director of Arlington Aces Soccer in Arlington Heights, won’t let his youngest players perform the move.

“I heard a long time ago that your brain (is uniquely vulnerable to injury) until you’re 13, so you don’t want a kid’s head mushing around,” he said.

That attitude has now been encoded into policy by Illinois Youth Soccer, a governing body that represents 81,000 players. The group announced this week that athletes 10 and younger are no longer allowed to use their head to strike the ball.

The change is in keeping with a recommendation made in November by U.S. Soccer, which had been sued by parents who claimed the organization wasn’t doing enough to protect their children from the threat of concussions.

U.S. Soccer resolved the lawsuit by agreeing to make changes, including improved education and uniform concussion management protocols. But a heading ban for young players was just a recommendation: U.S. Soccer said it did not have authority over all of the nation’s youth teams.

U.S. Soccer did not return a call seeking comment. In November, it said that its recommendation came on the advice of its medical committee, though it added that “science on head injuries is still developing.”

Mary Jane Bender of Illinois Youth Soccer said her group’s policy change is meant to promote safety. She said the group would have done it earlier but was waiting for U.S. Soccer to clarify what should happen when a young player heads the ball during a game.

That guidance never came, she said, so after conferring with regional and national refereeing administrators, Illinois Youth Soccer created its own rule: A purposeful header by a player 10 or younger will result in an indirect free kick for the other team.

“We didn’t want to penalize children but wanted to make sure that headers don’t occur on the field,” she said.

Rick Flores, Illinois Youth Soccer’s director of coaching, said another reason to postpone heading is that young athletes tend to do it incorrectly. Proper technique has many ingredients — body balanced, arms outstretched, mouth closed and eyes open, among other things — and novice players have a hard time getting it right.

“Most of the time kids just do it on their own,” he said.

Researchers interviewed by the Tribune last year for a story on the possible dangers of heading said there was no hard evidence to suggest a logical age cutoff for the activity. Some concussion experts, such as Dr. Robert Cantu of Boston University School of Medicine, have called for no heading until players turn 14.

The American Youth Soccer Organization, which has 500,000 players nationwide, also was a defendant in the concussion lawsuit and last week approved a policy change to follow the age guidelines recommended by U.S. Soccer. Some, though, say heading is not common among young AYSO players.

“At that level, I don’t see it,” said Tony Deering, who leads an AYSO region based in Rolling Meadows. “We don’t tell them to teach it at that level. Even at U12 (composed of 11- and 12-year-old players), we don’t see it much.”

Bender said Illinois Youth Soccer wanted to make the rule change before the spring season begins, but some coaches predicted it will not be an easy transition — especially because players who head the ball will be called for a foul.

“It’s going to cause confusion,” said Paul Clapson, director of coaching at Palatine Celtic SC. “You just hope it doesn’t start to affect games if a kid is getting in the way of the shot and the ball goes off his head, and the other team ends up with a free kick close to the goal. There’s going to have to be a little bit of leniency from the refs until the kids really understand it and the coaches are all on board.”

Even so, he favored the new rule as a safety precaution and said it would not impede the development of young players.

“I think at that age there’s so much else they need to be working on besides heading the ball,” he said.

Cruz, though, said some coaches oppose the change, believing that heading is an essential part of the game.

“At the league meetings I’ve seen, a lot of people are upset about it,” he said. “But I think it’s a great thing.”

jkeilman@tribpub.com

Twitter @JohnKeilman