Using his head: Athletic director takes step to protect football team from brain trauma
Jan 25, 2013, 7:05 AM | Updated: 5:13 pm
PHOENIX — An athletic director at Anthem Preparatory Academy strives to protect his young football players from head injuries.
“After Junior Seau’s death, I’m a New England Patriots fan, and to think someone like that, that every coach wants their kids to emulate, it dawned on me that this is a very serious situation,” said Doug Pillsbury.
During research, Pillsbury came across the ProCap 3. It fits snugly over a typical football helmet and helps absorb and disperse the energy during impact to protect the player’s head.
According to the company that manufactures the ProCap, it “is made of a specially developed, reaction molded urethane foam designed to absorb vast amounts of energy by giving resilience at the moment of impact compared to traditional hard-shelled helmets alone.”
“There have been independent studies and research and the findings stunned me,” said Pillsbury. “In some cases, there’s been up to a 90 percent reduction in head injuries.”
While he said fitting each helmet with the ProCap was pricey, protecting the kids is a no-brainer.
