There's now another area football team sporting head gear to try to prevent concussions.
"Hoping to reduce the probability of concussions, football will be wearing Guardian Caps this season," read a post on the Sacred Heart athletics Twitter account.
Here's what they look like:
 |
A photo of the Guardian Caps the Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech football team
will be wearing this fall. (Photo via Sacred Heart athletics Twitter account) |
What is the Guardian Cap?
It's a soft shell helmet designed for impact reduction. Guardian Cap claims the soft shell reduces impact by 33 percent. When it comes to concussions, any extra protection is better, but not an incentive to be reckless. As Guardian Cap puts it on its website:
"WARNING:
*No helmet, practice apparatus, or helmet pad can prevent or eliminate the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries while playing sports. Researchers have not reached an agreement on how the results of impact absorption tests relate to concussions. No conclusions about a reduction of risk or severity of concussive injury should be drawn from impact absorption tests."
Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech is the second local team I know of to use the Guardian Cap. St. Paul Catholic has also used Guardian Caps. If you saw a Falcon football helmet last season, it was pretty easy to notice the black padding on top of the blue St. Paul helmet. Here's what I mean:
 |
| St. Paul Catholic wore the Guardian Cap last season. (Kevin Roberts photo) |
It's good to see that safety is taken into account in football, and seeing Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech adopt the Guardian Cap is awesome. Safety is more important than the look of a logo on a helmet.
Labels: Guardian Cap, head protection gear, high school football, Sacred Heart/Kaynor Tech, soft shell, St. Paul Catholic
