15-07-2025
WVU institute teams up with school system to make football safer
FAIRMONT — Are you ready for some football?
A new season is almost upon the land, which also means it will soon be time for that too-familiar gridiron-physics narrative to unspool from your vantage, whether you're in the stands or in front of your TV.
You've seen it before.
The team breaks the huddle. The ball is snapped.
The quarterback drops deep and rifles a pass to a speedy wide receiver who never saw it coming — that gnarly shot from that mercenary linebacker or safety.
He's down, and when the trainers help him to his feet, he couldn't be more wobbly.
Even if you don't have a medical background, you still know what it is.
A concussion. No more routes to run in this game.
Concussion injuries — when the brain takes bruising bashes inside the skull from the impact — couldn't be more present in the football facts of life.
In high school football alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources, about 300,000 concussion-related injuries a year occur under the Friday night lights.
Such injuries can lead to long-term cognitive issues and even death.
In Marion County, though, the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute is huddling up with high school and middle school tackle football programs in an effort to make the game safer.
The institute is partnering with Riddell, the football helmet manufacturer, which will distribute 100 of its specially designed Axiom helmets to teams in the county.
The helmets are wired up with 3-D technology to provide perfect, custom fits for players. The headgear also comes standard with Riddell's exclusive technology which will offer analytics on impact sensing after each hit.
Dr. Michael Ebbert, a sports neurologist with the institute who is also a Marion County native, said he's excited and heartened by the above new team he hopes will forge a medical dynasty in the Mountain State.
After all, he said, this is football: America's favorite spectator sport.
'Our primary objective is to enhance the safety and well-being of our athletes,' Ebbert said. 'Having grown up in Marion County, I feel particularly privileged to be part of such a collaborative effort.'
The teams of Fairmont Senior High School and North Marion High are getting helmets. So is East Fairmont High.
East Fairmont Middle and West Fairmont Middle, also.
The North Marion Husky Pups, a team that draws players from the middle schools of Mannington, Barrackville, Fairview and Monongah, will don the Riddell helmets as part of the study.
Dr. Javier Cardenas, who is chief of the institute's division of sport neurology and director of its concussion and brain injury center, has already assigned blue-chip status to the effort.
'It's the most comprehensive student safety initiative in the country,' he said. 'We're setting a national standard for protecting young athletes' brains — on and off the field.'
The helmets and accompanying technology will be distributed to the Marion schools in the next two weeks or so, the institute said.
