The culture around concussions is changing, said Andy Palko, the head athletic trainer at Waynesburg University. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is all over the news, and athletes and their families are more concerned now than ever about the effects of sustaining regular impacts in the game of football.

That’s why Waynesburg University’s football team is using 24 special helmets to monitor impacts that occur during practice and play, Palko said. The Riddell InSite impact response system incorporates electrodes in the padding of the helmets, which measure velocity, rotational positioning and the force of each impact. Every helmet is linked to Palko’s desktop computer and a portable device that alerts him when an impact occurs above a certain threshold, notifying him of a potential concussion.

“It’s an extra tool in my toolbelt to make sure that when I can’t watch all 100 football players, at least I know that there is a back-up system that can notify me if there’s something if I don’t witness the event,” said Palko.

Palko said he has always had an interest in concussions; but the problem is, symptoms vary from person to person, circumstance to circumstance. CTE can’t even be diagnosed in living individuals, he said. The new helmets will provide some “actionable data,” a truly objective way to measure impact, and perhaps provide more clarity to the science of concussions.

“My intention is to extrapolate data, review it, and then begin a case study,” said Palko. “And just kind of look at what our football players are experiencing in the field.”

Palko hopes the study will provide more “evidence of what is happening in the brain,” even for impacts that don’t register as dangerous on his device.

The potential for the tool doesn’t end there, said Chris Smithley, head football coach. Every helmet is programmed to the specific athlete wearing it, which allows Palko and Smithley to gather statistics about how the player tackles and absorbs hits.

Smithley said he and Palko are able to synchronize the time of impact with practice video, to watch it with the athlete and focus on form and technique.

“Maybe a guy is not tackling the right way, or if he’s taking consistent impacts to the back of his head, we’ve got to figure out why that’s happening,” said Smithley. “It helps us as a coaching staff to teach better technique, to teach better tackling, better blocking, you know, for their safety.”

Palko said the number of concussions on the Jackets football team has decreased over the year, with only a “handful” of occurrences last year, and none during the current season so far.
“It’s kind of atypical, to be honest,” he said.

He thinks the decrease has a lot to do with the vigilance of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which has instilled more extensive precautions in recent years, and greater awareness about the long-term effects of concussions.

The goal of adding the Riddell system to Waynesburg’s normal concussion protocol is to be proactive, Smithley said. It all goes back to the changing culture around concussions.

“It’s really good because you know how the concussion thing is and how things are changing with player safety. We wanted to be a frontrunner in this thing,” Smithley said. “And maybe Waynesburg University can get to the front of solving some of these issues with concussions in football.”

Palko said that only one other institution in Pennsylvania, Seton Hill University, is using the Riddell system.

Waynesburg purchased 12 of the Riddell helmets last year as a test run, and has acquired 12 more this year. The goal, said Smithley, is to keep buying helmets until eventually, everyone on the team will be able to use the new system.