9 Investigates: High-tech helmets ‘catching' possible concussions

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Volusia County School District is researching how much it would cost to outfit its 10 high school football teams with special, high-tech helmets, aimed at reducing head injuries that can lead to a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

Channel 9 investigative reporter Karla Ray got a firsthand look at one district already using the technology and found out why it may be tough for other schools to latch on.

“We just have an opportunity to track our kids and do a better job of being proactive instead of reactive,” Matanzas High School football coach Robert Ripley said.

The protection for all Flagler County high school football players goes beyond the pads and helmets. Hidden technology in each helmet, called the Riddell Insite Impact Response Monitoring System, sends an alert to check for possible concussions after a hard hit.

“The uptick in concussion treatment and concussion management in the last three or four years has gone up substantially,” Dr. Elizabeth Davis said.  Davis is a pediatric sports medicine physician at Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital.

Davis said the increased focus on concussions comes as researchers discover more about the disease caused by repeated brain injuries, CTE.

“Concussions are acute. CTE is what happens, or can happen, down the road, years later,” Davis said. “You will see these chronic brain changes that lead to things like memory loss, dementia, et cetera.”

CTE is the center of a $20 million lawsuit against the NFL following the suicide of former player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez, who was diagnosed with a severe case of CTE after his death.

The symptoms of CTE, which include depression, confusion and memory loss, can take up to 10 years to show up, long after repeated head injuries. CTE can only be diagnosed after death.

Photos: NFL Players with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

“I don't want to get a phone call when I'm 60, 70 years old that ‘so and so died and had CTE,’ and they only played high school football,” Ripley said.

The Flagler County School District only had two high schools to outfit with the helmets, making the cost of around $30,000 easier to tackle than it would be for larger districts with more teams.

9 Investigates reached out Central Florida school districts to see if they’d consider investing in the technology.

Osceola County’s athletic coordinator, Ryan Adams, said by email, “We are always looking and will evaluate ways to continue to protect our players. I have not seen a presentation on the material from Riddell but would be interested in hearing more about it.”

A spokesperson for Seminole County Public Schools told 9 Investigates that athletic directors at each school and football coaches work to upgrade helmets each year to continually rotate out older helmets and replace with higher grade, newer ones as much as possible; that's an ongoing process. Cost is a big factor and why so many schools receive huge assists from their volunteer athletic booster clubs.

Most local school districts keep tabs on the number of concussions that occur each year per sport, but the Orange County School District does not track that information at a district level.

The Volusia County School District noted 82 concussions on the football team since the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. Over five years, the Lake County School District counted more than 150 football-related concussions at seven out of eight of its high schools.

“I think this has to be the future of football. If we don't continue to develop our technologies and put the best equipment on our kids, this sport's going to go away,” Ripley said.

WATCH: See the tech behind the Riddell Impact Response Helmets:

WATCH: Q&A with expert on helmet technology

Cox Media Group