To ease parents’ concerns, the Gainesville Gators Pee Wee tackle football team will use new trauma-monitoring helmets this season.
The team will use the bluetooth-enabled Riddell InSite helmets Sept. 3, during its first game in the Gainesville Pop Warner League. The helmets give coaches real-time updates on their 16 players, who are ages 9 to 12.
“It gives us another set of eyes, so if a hard hit does happen, it alerts us through the bluetooth monitor system, ” said Jason Wozniak, the team’s head coach and a former UF football player.
After one player suffered a concussion last season, Wozniak and the parents of some players asked Riddell to provide the new helmets.
“Last year, we only had one concussion which was one more than we wanted,” he said.
The team has implemented new tackling techniques and strong concussion protocol, but some hits are harder to see than others, Wozniak said, when players collide.
This impact can cause a wide spectrum of symptoms, skull fractures, bleeding in the brain, concussions and sub-concussions, said James Clugston, the director of UF’s Sports Concussion Center.
“In the past we didn’t pay much attention to it,” Clugston said, adding that new helmets should improve the tackling techniques of the players and thus prevent injury.
Since the helmets were delivered, the players’ parents have been receptive to the updated technology, relieved their kids now have an extra layer of protection, Wozniak said.
“We’re trying to make football safer for the youth,” he said.
