Increased awareness of player health and safety has become a common theme in football in recent years. Therefore, player protection and proper technique are of the utmost importance to high school football players as the 2017 football season begins.
For the fourth year, McCarthy Auto Group has partnered with PrepsKC in a mission to further player protection and the education of student-athletes in the Kansas City area by helping make new, smarter football technology available to select local schools.
This smarter football technology has been made possible through a partnership with McCarthy Auto Group, PrepsKC, and Riddell, the industry leader in football helmet technology and innovation. This season, McCarthy Auto Group and Riddell have deployed the Riddell InSite Impact Response System at Leavenworth High School, Grain Valley High School, Pleasant Hill High School and Smith-Cotton High School.
“McCarthy Auto Group is pleased to be in the 4th year of a very successful partnership with Riddell,” McCarthy Auto Group Communications Director Karl Kramer said. “This venture ties into our support of High School Football through our great partner PrepsKC, into the connecting the mantra of advocating for playing the game as safe a possible through technology like InSite through Riddell. Lastly and most importantly, this partnership with Riddell supports the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association and the great work they do in supporting the kids and high school football across the Kansas City market.”
The Riddell InSite Impact Response System is an integrated monitoring and alerting tool designed specifically for the proactive protection of football players. Riddell developed InSite based on its Head Impact Telemetry System (HITS) and Sideline Response System (SRS), a technology that has analyzed nearly 5 million impacts since 2003. InSite is a helmet-based impact monitoring technology designed to alert when significant single and multiple impacts are sustained during a football game or practice. Coaches and sideline staff will now have Riddell InSite’s unique vantage point inside the helmet at the time of contact to alert the sideline staff of a potential issue.
“Riddell has created an initiative called ‘Smarter Football,’ which is centered around having smarter playing tactics on the field,” Jerome Tucker, a Riddell Sales Representative in Kansas City, said. “Together McCarthy Auto Group, PrepsKC, Riddell and the participating high schools are working together to push the growth of ‘Smarter Football’ with the integration of InSite. We are excited that each year this partnership helps to create a better, safer and smarter game of football.”
Before the 2017 season, McCarthy Auto Group has been able to provide InSite technology to 19 high school programs in the Kansas City area. The 2017 season will raise that number up to 23 programs. In addition, it is estimated that there are another 10 programs in Kansas City using the Riddell InSite Impact Response System. Nationwide, more than 800 programs use InSite.
Throughout the season, PrepsKC will follow the progress of these four schools and chronicle how InSite is improving the safety of the players on the team. We encourage you to check back next week to read more about these teams and how the addition of InSite is changing their game.
