Community helps Red Devils purchase new football helmets

Noxon football players had added safety equipment thanks to some team fundraising and generous donations from local businesses.

Coach Lucas MacArthur said the team purchased nine Riddell Axiom helmets that include new technology with added safety features. The company came to the school to analyze and measure players' heads for the new helmets. The Axiom helmets are custom fit to reduce impacts for players. MacArthur said Riddell will come each year and refit helmets.

The Axiom helmets also include technology that records impacts to the helmet, as well as the intensity of the impacts. Coaches can view the data collected. For example, MacArthur saw that one player's helmet recorded that 17% of the impacts were to the top of the player's head. "We need to have a conversation about not putting his head down," the coach said, adding that the new helmets, being custom fit, are more comfortable for players. "It won't eliminate concussions, but it will be a lot better for players and protect them a lot more to potentially reduce the number of concussions," said MacArthur, who added that they have had three concussions on the team this season.

The new helmet purchase actually was sparked by a need for additional helmets for the Noxon junior high football program. MacArthur said they have 16 junior high football players this year. "We didn't have enough helmets for the team and some were going to have to share. That doesn't work so well in practice," he noted. MacArthur said that the Noxon Booster Club each year donates $600 to each varsity program to buy gear and he passed on the high school football team's booster club donation to the junior high football program, which bought six new helmets. MacArthur also saw a need for the high school program and the fundraising began.

The new helmets cost about $700 each, and they paid about $200 more per helmet than a standard helmet. "What's $200 when it comes to the safety of these kids?" MacArthur noted. He said he thought about his own son, who is in the fifth grade, and what helmet he would put him in when deciding what to purchase for the team. MacArthur said the team decided to fundraise for the project. "The school wants to protect our players, but we didn't want to ask for more funding and took it upon ourselves to fundraise," he said.

The Avista Corporation, through their Sanders County Outreach Committee, donated to the helmet fundraiser and encouraged Clark Fork Valley Hospital to match the donation, which they did.

MacArthur said that now, the football team has a new rotation in which helmets will be cycled through the program and into the junior high program as well. He said both teams are excited about the helmets and grateful to the community for the support.