- November 14, 2024
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Concussions in football aren't going away, but a new, impact-detecting helmet could help alert coaches to a serious hit. Flagler Schools wants to be the first district in the state to outfit each of its players with one.
"It gives us the chance to record collisions," Matanzas High School football coach Robert Ripley told the School Board at a May 3 workshop. "So we have the opportunity to be proactive, instead of reactive, to any kind of severe hit or blow."
As the first district to use the technology for all of its players, Ripley said, "We’ll be pioneers."
The helmets, made by Riddell, are lined with light plastic sensors — the Riddell InSite Impact Response System — that are attached to a battery. The sensor, which are only activated when the helmets are worn and each sensor is in contact with the skull, so that they don't go off if someone drops a helmet on the floor, are linked to a handheld remote monitor with wireless technology.
The helmets have a 10-year life and are stamped with their manufacture date. The data they record is stored for seven days, and can be downloaded and placed on spreadsheets to show coaches how many hits a helmet has taken, and how hard they were.
The sensors record hits in five distinct areas: the front of the head, the back of the head, the very top of the head, and both sides of the head.
Flagler Palm Coast High School coach Tom Moody told the board that he'd like to see the helmets used across the state and across the country.
The district has trainers who watch games and practices to watch out for hard hits, Moody said, but, "Trainers can only do such much. Trainers follow the ball. … Something like this will automatically let us know to check that kid."
Even a mild concussion, he said, can force a student out of school for a week.
Nick Clark, Riddell's Florida/Georgia equipment manager, told the board that the new technology is "the next step in player safety."
"What this does is give you eyes on the field to see what we do not see," he said.
The helmets don't transmit all the time, he said — only when there's a hit. Then they report whether it was a single hit or a multiple hit, and where the hit was on the helmet and the player's head.
Because the district already uses many Riddell helmets, Ripley said, it will cost only about $30,000 to outfit both high school teams with the new technology.
About 60 Riddell helmets at FPC would be retrofitted with the sensors, and 40 at Matanzas would be retrofitted with the sensors, he said in an interview after the meeting. Both schools would also get 20 new helmets each that include the new technology. The new helmets would cost about $500 each.
"Part of our vision is making sure we have safe, sustainable learning environments," School District Superintendent Jacob Oliva said. "A lot of the uncertainly around high-impact sports is safety, so we’ve been talking to them for a long time. ... We want to be the first district in the state of Florida to outfit both footballs teams with the safety technology that’s available to them."
