Catching and removing helmet/mask

Question
My daughter has caught for over 8 years and has always been coached not to
remove her helmet/mask when fielding a ball.  She wears a hockey style
helmet/mask and is very comfortable catching without removing her helmet/
mask.  Now her high school coach is insisting she throw off her helmet.  What
is the current best practices for this?

Answer
Removing and throwing the mask out of the way is a carry over from the old style catchers mask.  The periphial vision with the old style compared to the hockey style is terrible.  It required the removal of the mask to do the job.  The vision from the hockey style mask is very good.  Removing the mask is not nearly as important.  Removing the hockey style helment is just a personal preference thing.

By not removing the mask, you don't have a piece of defensive equipment on the field, that if hit by the ball would cause a dead ball situation with base awards made to anybody on base.