The Huntington North football program is on the cutting edge of new technology designed to make football safer. This year the Vikings spent $5,400 installing Riddell’s InSite Impact Response System into 36 of their helmets. Huntington North is the first high school in Northeast Indiana to use this technology.
A few area CIAC schools have purchased Riddell’s InSite Impact Response System to provide another way to quickly identify potential concussions. The company Riddell, which designs and develops football helmets and other protective sports equipment, calls itself “a recognized leader in helmet technology and innovation.” This five-zone sensor pad installed into the liner of the helmet measures the severity of impact to the helmet.
Blair Academy in New Jersey has long had a policy of no tackling in practice. With a small roster that’s hovered around 35 players on the varsity and junior varsity combined, the school couldn’t afford to lose players to injury. To further protect the players Blair also has invested in Riddell InSite helmets with sensors to help record the frequency and severity of hits. The helmets don’t prevent concussions, but they do help the coaches know if a player has been hit hard or if a player needs to use better technique when delivering hits.
Nine Springfield High School football players will be equipped with the InSite Impact Response System, designed by Riddell for use in the Riddell’s Speed helmets. So far, Head Coach Roy Gully said none of the nine helmet sensors have detected a large hit during the preseason practices.
Some big changes are coming to high school football this season. The football players on more than a dozen local teams will be wearing a new piece of technology. One local team made the switch last season as a result of a NewsChannel 5 On Your Side investigates report on helmet safety. Freeburg Head Coach Ronnie Stuart says he’s looking forward to using the Riddell InSite helmet sensors for the first time this season. Columbia High School is going into its second season with the sensors. They were the first school to start using them. Now they’re one of 15 area high schools that have joined the growing trend of safety on the football field. All the players at Columbia High School have the sensors in their helmets.
The San Francisco 49ers recently teamed up with USA Football, the sport’s national governing body and a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, to hand out grants to several youth football teams in the San Francisco area. The grants, which were for uniforms and safety equipment, were granted to select youth and scholastic football programs based on need and merit. These grants from USA Football, which are given to increase the benefits and fun of playing football for all ages, are provided with help from its equipment partner, Riddell, and its uniform provider, Siege Sports, as well as support from the NFL Foundation.
Players on the JV and varsity teams at Cordova High School will be wearing high-tech football helmets, embedded with impact monitoring technology. It’s a welcome addition to the team. This new helmet could change the rules of the game and also ease concerns. If a player receives a hard hit on the football field, the helmet sends a message to the sidelines and to the coaches. From there, that player will be evaluated and coaches say without the new technology players would be self-evaluating themselves. The technology from Riddell triggers an alert when an impact passes a pre-determined threshold. Cordova High School is the first in the nation to outfit an entire team, all thanks to an $180,000 grant from the city.
The Webb School football program became one of the first high school football programs in Tennessee to take a hi-tech approach to monitoring their players. Webb has adopted Riddell’s InSite Impact Response System – the latest in head impact monitoring technology – for the upcoming season.
Athletic trainers like Gary Premo and Cassie Glodowski are a familiar sight on the sidelines at Weyauwega-Fremont and Waupaca high schools. Both work for ThedaCare, a Fox Cities-based community health system consisting of seven hospitals and numerous clinics in northeastern Wisconsin. Both help to monitor the health and safety of student athletes. In regards to concussion safety and awareness, Waupaca High School has utilized ImPACT, a concussion management test, since 2009. Trainers also test middle school football players in Waupaca and Weyauwega-Fremont. The Hortonville Area School District invested $20,000 last year in the Riddell InSite Response System, which records impacts on five key areas of a football helmet. Sideline staff receive instant alerts if there’s a problem.
Thanks to a grant from the city, both the varsity and junior varsity football programs at Cordova High School will be wearing helmet-based, head-impact monitoring technology. The grant that eventually was approved by the city that allowed the school to buy 180 of the technology-driven helmets from Riddell. What makes the helmets so special are the many sensors hidden in the padding. When an impact reaches a certain threshold, the sensor will then send an electronic signal to a hand-held device on the sidelines. That means every player is being monitored at the same time, and wherever they are on the field during practice and games. According to Riddell, Cordova is the first high school in the country to have the city outfit an entire team.
