Area high school baseball coaches feel they are challenging the odds of getting hit every time they step on a field, but generally they don’t want to wear helmets.

“There have been times that balls have gone by me that I never saw,” said Lookout Valley coach David Dinger. “I see the concern, but many people are in danger around a baseball field, from those in the dugout to fans to the pitchers and infielders.”

Professional coaches are now required to wear helmets while doing their jobs along the first- and third-base lines. Major League Baseball made that decision after Mike Coolbaugh, first-base coach for Colorado’s Class AA team in Tulsa, Okla., was killed last year by a foul ball.

The helmet requirement for coaches drew mixed reactions in the MLB ranks. Dodgers coach Larry Bowa said at first he would ignore the new MLB rule. He has since capitulated, wearing a plastic liner inside his traditional cap, but said coaches detest wearing helmets, even those without the hitters’ ear flaps.

The Braves’ Gene Hubbard agreed. During spring training he pointed to a youngster on the field at the dugout. The boy was wearing a helmet.

“That’s what I feel like — a batboy,” Hubbard told The Associated Press. “We should have a choice in these things. I’m only wearing it because it’s a major league rule.”

High school and college coaches have a choice, at least for the moment.

“There is nothing to prevent coaches from wearing helmets, but making coaches wear them was listed as a ‘possible’ on the new (National Federation of High Schools) rules change proposals,” TSSAA assistant executive director Gene Menees said. “It if happens to become a rule, then they don’t have a choice.”

Even though he has had several near-misses, Dinger would vote against making helmets part of the gear for coaches in the boxes.

“I don’t believe it’s necessary, any more than making a pitcher or infielder wear them,” he said.

Among a handful of coaches who responded to queries about having to wear helmets, only Baylor’s Gene Etter favored such a rule.

Etter, though, saw up close what a batted ball can do. He was on the field during batting practice while playing years ago for the Chicago Cubs minor league team in Wenatchee, Wash., when a teenager who had been taking throws from the outfield behind the pitcher’s mound was struck in the neck.

“The batter hit a line drive,” Etter recalled. “The kid walked off the field. I talked to him. An ambulance took him to the hospital, and we got the word about 20 minutes later that he was dead.

“I saw a segment on ESPN on the coaches wearing helmets. I thought it was strange that the coach who was killed was hit in the neck and the helmets they are wearing do not protect that area. To me it would have made more sense to have made a rule that the coaches must wear a neck guard or a helmet with a neck guard.”

In almost 40 years of coaching, Etter has been hit twice, he said — once in the back after he turned away from a line drive. He also hit the ground as a line drive zoomed toward his head.

“I collapsed just in time to avoid it. It must have been funny — the opposing coaches really laughed,” he said.

The pros use wood bats; high school and college teams use aluminum. A study by Dr. Daniel Russell that’s available at kettering.edu shows that balls travel from 70 to 101 mph off wood bats and 70-108 mph off aluminum bats.

Spokesperson Stacey Osburn told the Harrisonburg (Va.) Daily News Record that the NCAA has no plans for a rule to make coaches wear helmets.

“We do not have that helmet mandate, and I’m not aware at this point of any discussions so far,” she said.

“History would tell you that if colleges go to it, high schools probably will,” Menees said.

Relatively young Ringgold coach Brent Tucker said he has never been hit and wouldn’t want to wear a helmet.

“I believe some choices should be left up to the individual. If I felt unsafe, I would wear one,” Tucker said.

“I have been hit a couple of times in the ankle,” said Grace Academy coach Ruston Pierce. “I don’t recall any time the ball was close to my head. As coaches, we assume the risk that comes with standing in coaching boxes. Generally speaking, once the ball is pitched we should be watching the hitter anyway.

“As far as the major leagues, if I was standing 90 feet from (Cardinals slugger) Albert Pujols, I would probably put on full catching gear. It isn’t comparable (to high school).”

While they aren’t resigned to wearing helmets, some coaches including Soddy-Daisy’s Steve Garland believe such a rule isn’t too far away.

“It’s only a matter of time,” he said. “I also foresee wood bats at all levels. Athletes continue to get bigger and stronger, while coaches get older and slower. I wouldn’t mind wearing a helmet. I might feel like a dork at the beginning, but we would all look like dorks together.

“But let’s be honest. Those of us fortunate enough to get paid to coach high school baseball — it could be a lot worse. I’d still love coaching if they told me to wear a clown suit.”