Modesto high schools getting anti-concussion football helmets for full teams

Modesto City Schools Board members expanded a bid for impact-monitoring helmets to cover all positions on every high school football team next year. One speaker said the move will make Modesto the first public district to have such helmets for all its athletics.

The original bid, for $98,784, was to buy 54 of the helmets for each of the district’s seven high schools, enough to cover the positions most likely to be hit for each of the three teams at each school, said Mike Coats, a senior director of educational services. But board Vice President Steve Grenbeaux told coaches they had not asked for enough.

“I think we need to add some to that,” Grenbeaux said Monday night.

Grenbeaux called the amount, compared with one lawsuit over an injured player, “chicken scratch.”

The helmets were piloted at Gregori High this year after a student football player researched concussions for an English paper. “I wrote about making the sport I love safer,” said Dominic Barandica, who will be a junior this fall.

Barandica presented his findings to Doctors Medical Center, where his father is an emergency room physician. A $10,000 grant from the hospital helped buy the Gregori teams 36 helmets, with Dr. Robert Barandica monitoring information on game day knocks sent by the helmets to a computer he watched from the sidelines.

The Riddell InSite Impact Response System helmets are designed to deflect impact, but also record every hit, large or small, giving a coaches a record over time of potential health issues and poor technique. Volunteer physician residents will be available at every game to monitor impacts on game day, with coaches watching the readings from practice, coaches told the board.

There are 3 million sports and recreational concussions nationwide each year, with high school football accounting for nearly half of those, Coats said.

This fall, the helmet sounded the alarm for a concussion suffered during a game by a Gregori blocker, Robert Barandica said. The player did not have the ball and was not injured by the tackle, so onlookers did not spot the problem.

But the helmet registered a major impact with the ground, setting off an electronic alert and bringing medical attention even though the teen said he felt fine. About 15 minutes later, Barandica said, “was another story,” sending the boy to the hospital and out of play for at least a week.

Only 13 high schools across the state, all private, have the helmets, the physician told the board. “We can make a big difference here, being the first public schools and the first public school district to apply this technology. And I want to put Modesto on the map for that,” he said.

“Everybody should have this,” said board member Jordan Dickson.

The vote was unanimous to purchase enough helmets for each of the 891 teens signed up for football across the district, which comprises the Modesto Metro Conference. Cost at the bid per helmet price would bring the price to about $233,000.

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Modesto high schools getting anti-concussion football helmets for full teams."