Maple Valley football using new technology to monitor concussion risk

VERMONTVILLE – When Maple Valley High School defensive end Grant Adrianson saw his team’s new helmets for the first time this summer, the words “awesome” and “sweet” came to mind.

But first-year coach Marty Martin didn’t acquire those “sweet” Riddell SpeedFlex helmets for show.

The helmets have technology that alert coaches when the player wearing it has taken a potentially dangerous hit. An alert is sent to the sideline monitor and shows the information regarding the hit and the player impacted.

The coach, or whoever is controlling the sideline monitor, can then take the player out of the game and assess them for symptoms of a concussion.

“What we’re hoping is to be the leaders in the state, and the country, when it comes to concussion awareness,” said Martin, whose team is one of the first high schools in the state with the SpeedFlex headgear, which has an InSite Impact Response System built in. “We want to be that spearhead that makes districts understand that there is an obligation to keeping our kids safe.”

The new gear has a price tag of roughly $19,000. The school provided $15,000 with the rest made up by private donors. The helmets will require yearly maintenance – the InSite sensors require batteries – and will cost about $2,200 each year. A former Maple Valley alumnus donated $22,000 to help with the upkeep for years to come.

“When you do make a purchase it has to be purposeful and protect the kids,” said Martin, whose team kicks off the 2015 season Friday against Fowler. “Football right now is probably the safest it has ever been for the high school athlete. We want to make sure that other schools and districts understand that we need to be purposeful in what we purchase. We can’t buy the cheapest thing, we have to buy the safest thing.”

Maple Valley is also one of 70 high schools taking part in a pilot sideline concussion testing program offered by the Michigan High School Athletic Association this season.

The school volunteered to work with XLNTbrain Sport, which incorporates baseline testing at the start of the season to assist in testing athletes who suffer a potential concussion during the season.

The topic of concussions in sports – specifically football – has been a hot-button issue in recent years. And the MHSAA feels it is taking the necessary steps to ensure student-athletes are protected.

“The pilot program is something no one else in the country is doing,” said MHSAA spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly. “We’ve provided tons of information on our website, provided resources, worked with the University of Michigan.”

This fall, the MHSAA will be the first state association to provide insurance for accident medical expense benefits — covering deductibles and co-pays left unpaid by other policies — resulting from concussions sustained during MHSAA practices or competitions. There is no cost to either schools or families, and the insurance covers all MHSAA member-school student-athletes in grades 7-12 and who are eligible under MHSAA rules.

“There’s a lot we’re still learning about this,” Kimmerly said, “but we’re doing everything we can to make our athletes safe as possible.”

Recent tests done by Stefan Duma, a professor and department head at Virginia-Tech Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, show there is a difference in the brand and construction of helmets.

Duma, along with his team, put together a football helmet rating system. Through hundreds of tests, the research group was able to determine which helmets had lower acceleration – a key factor in determining the best helmets to fight against concussions – and give them a one- through five-star rating.

The Riddell SpeedFlex helmet that Maple Valley will be use this season earned a five-star rating and is the second best option available, according to Duma.

“In general, we’re at what I would say is the beginning of a lot of the concussion research,” Duma said. “It’s all data driven. If you look at moving from a one-star helmet to a four-star helmet, that’s where you would reduce your risk (of a concussion) by 50 percent. I wouldn’t say the best five-star helmet is (that much) better than the middle-rated five-star helmet.”

Other researchers have come to different conclusions.

A study done by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014 found that no specific brand, age or recondition status of helmets was associated with fewer sport-related concussions in kids.

“It’s understandable why some parents who are already anxious about their kids playing high school football may want to buy the newest, most expensive equipment available in the hopes that it will considerably reduce their child’s risk of injury,” Alison Brooks, a professor in the University of Wisconsin Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, Division of Sports Medicine and lead co-investigator on the study, said in a news release. “However, there was nothing in our study to show that any specific brand of helmet performed better than another in the real world high school setting, despite what previous lab-based testing has suggested.”

The battle against concussions has taken on a new urgency. Programs are trying to get a jump on the safety of amateur athletes before a steady decline in participants occurs.

“There’s been a lot of attention focused on football regarding head safety, but the fact is all school sports need attention to the safety of the student-athletes in particularly safety to the head,” Jack Roberts, the MHSAA’s executive director, said in a video posted on the organization’s website.

“We’re addressing all sports on all levels – practice and competition – to make sure that our staff are interacting with young people, note the best practices for safety in schools sports, and we’re trying to communicate to the public that schools sports is safer than ever.”

Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.