CRESTVIEW — Davidson Middle School is the first Okaloosa County baseball team to be equipped by the Taylor Haugen Foundation’s Youth Equipment For Sports Safety Program and the Dugas Family Foundation.
The YESS program last fall equipped the Panthers football team with EvoSheild, a shirt that disperses a blow's impact to the heart or back. This reduces the possibility of commotio cordis, a potentially fatal, heart-stopping injury. Athletes younger than age 16 are particularly vulnerable to this kind of injury, possibly because their chest walls are more elastic and easily compressed.
“Commotio cordis is the second-leading cause of death in athletes younger than 14,” said Brian Haugen, father of the late Taylor Haugen. Taylor, whom his friends called “T," died from an abdominal injury during Niceville High School‘s kickoff classic against Fort Walton Beach in August, 2008.
Since T’s death, the Taylor Haugen Foundation and its YESS program have been equipping youth athletes with protective equipment.
“While the YESS program initially focused on football players and abdominal injuries, a generous grant from the Dugas Family Foundation has allowed us to expand our mission and equip local baseball and softball players," a YESS news release stated.
This fall, the YESS program equipped more than 1,500 middle and high school athletes across Okaloosa and Walton counties, at no cost to the schools or teams.
“It made a big difference to our football players, so I was grateful for the opportunity to equip and protect our baseball team," Davidson Coach Daniel Richards said.
Taylor’s mother, Kathy, the foundation’s executive director, said, “The YESS Program’s goal is to better educate and equip our youth athletes with this type of next-generation injury prevention gear and to eventually make this available to more secondary school athletic teams nationally.
"As parents, our job is not to prevent our kids from playing the sports they love, but to better protect them from injury. ”
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For more information about the YESS program, contact Kathy Haugen, The Taylor Haugen Foundation executive director, at thfdirector@emailfamily.org
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Davidson baseball teams equipped with potentially life-saving gear