Last week here at The Captain’s Blog, I shared with you a letter from David Bartholomay of Minnesota who wrote to me about his son’s positive experience wearing the M11 helmet.

Since then, I have received many more letters and comments and I wanted to share two in particular with you this week – one from Coach Jason D. Power of O’Fallon High School in Illinois and one from Serena A. Spencer of Beverly Hills, California.

I appreciate all of these letters and I am honored that The Messier Project has inspired such a meaningful conversation – beginning the conversation is a start to determining solutions.  We need all the stakeholders working together to address the issue of concussion in hockey.

Jason D. Power of Illinois, Head Coach of O’Fallon High School Hockey, wrote to me about his team and how he is a strong believer in our product.  He switched his entire team over to Cascade helmets two years ago and now O’Fallon High School would like to be included as a member of The Messier Project.

Jason writes:  “Two years ago, when first introduced to Cascade’s product, I switched my entire program over to your lids. I have had multiple injuries to my players since then, all however came out fine thanks to your buckets! I sadly, have had two players run from behind this season and taken to the Children’s Hospital here in St. Louis… both times the head neurologist praised the helmets they were wearing with saving their lives. I am die hard believer in your product, and our association will continue to only use Cascade helmets!”

Jason – as I wrote to David last week, I would like to say thank you for writing in and sharing with us your team’s story.  I am relieved to hear that your players were not seriously injured after being hit from behind and that you feel Cascade’s Seven Technology helped protect your players during these hits.  It is great to have you and O’Fallon High School on The Messier Project team, and it is clear your team is providing leadership in terms of changing priorities within our sport.  Best of luck for the rest of the season!

Serena A. Spencer of Beverly Hills, California, also wrote to me this week.  She is a new hockey fan and has become very concerned about the concussion issue in the sport.

Serena writes:  “I cringe every time I see how quickly the helmets come flying off with a hard hit or fight.  When I’m watching the (Kings) game on FSW, I’ve seen the concussion issue come up briefly in commentary, but then it sort of gets blown off.  I don’t actually know enough about hockey or the rules (love the game & am reading books…), but this seems too important to not be in the forefront – especially now that the games are getting more and more physical the closer we get to playoffs.  What can people do to support your mission?”

Serena – first, thank you for your letter.  I understand your concern over the issue of concussion in hockey, especially as a new fan of our great sport.

– Mark Messier

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.