Braves geared up with new gridiron technology

Preseason workouts are still a few weeks away, yet the La Conner High football team already has a heads-up on its foes.

Literally.

The Braves have adopted use of the Riddell InSite helmet, a sensor technology headgear with a monitor that alerts coaches and sideline staff when a player experiences a significant hit or multiple impacts during a game or practice.

The La Conner football program, according to Super-intendent Tim Bruce and head football coach Johnny Lee, will be the first in Washington state to take this hi-tech approach in monitoring all its players.

“Ensuring that our players are protected is our number one priority,” Bruce said prior to Monday’s La Conner School Board meeting. “In fact, safety is our top concern no matter what the activity.”

As evidence, the school board has chosen helmets with contact sensors in their helmets for all players despite a unit cost Bruce said is in the $300 range — around three times the cost of regular helmets.

“There’s no way that you can say the safety of one kid is more important than that of another,” Bruce explained. “We end up rotating old helmets out after every season anyway, so it just makes sense this year to put everybody in the new helmets with the sensors.”

Lee said the helmets are calibrated to send messages to staff wearing special pagers when contact reaches a certain threshold. When that happens, the player or players involved will be removed from the field and undergo mandated concussion protocol.

“The advantage for us as coaches,” Lee said, “is this technology provides us with another set of eyes. Statistics indicate that nearly half of all concussions go unreported. Now there’s no way a player can avoid coming off the field when necessary.

“Another important feature,” said Lee, “is it can help provide us feedback on how well we’re tackling. We teach safe tackling techniques, but the sensors could show if some players need re-teaching and more practice in that area.”

Bruce and Lee said that while the new helmets don’t prevent concussions, they can certainly help coaches and training staff determine if one has occurred.

“Anytime you invest in kids,” Bruce said, “your foremost thought is maintaining a safe and healthy environment for them. With the new helmets, it gives Johnny and the coaches more than a visual assessment. We have another piece of equipment to help make a more complete assessment.”

The technology has undergone exhaustive research over the past decade.

“The Riddell people came to us awhile back,” Lee recalled, “and said they had this technology out and if we’d be interested in it. I said, ‘sure,’ but as a coach I have to take it up with the administration.

That, to use a familiar sports phrase, got the ball rolling.

Lee met with Bruce and Athletic Director Peg Seeling, "and they were on board from the get-go,” he said.

Lee said some teams in Washington state were equipped with between five and 10 sensor helmets last year. La Conner has opted for a full buy-in.

“We’re very cognizant of all the press regarding football and concussions,” Seeling said on Monday, “so I give Tim and the board kudos on this. I’m thrilled that we’re the only school in the state to have all its players equipped with this helmet.”