Pete Stenhoff, 19, was a local football hero at Chula Vista High School in Redmond, California. He never thought that his football career could come to an end as fast as it began.
In a playoff game during his junior year, Stenhoff cracked vertebrae in his spine while ramming his head into a ball carrier’s chest. Stenhoff is now in a wheelchair for life.
Although he has not given up on getting his diploma, he was not able to graduate with his class and friends.
Stenhoff says that he is not bitter over what happened. “I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football,” he said, “But I wish I would have known just how bad it could be.”
He’s not alone.
There are 20,000 high school students injured in football each year. 2,400 of the injuries permanently disable the player. 7,000 of the injuries are to the neck and to the head. In last year alone 13 students died from direct deaths from football injuries.
Many critics say that the high rate of deaths and injuries of/to students is a direct result of the helmets. A study on direct football injuries in California revealed that 95 percent of the injuries were caused by ill fitted helmets. However, the rate of head and neck injuries has dropped drastically due to efforts to better fit helmets to each player individually.
The discovery that the fit of helmets can help reduce injuries has led researchers to work on newer models of helmets.
The new Revolution helmet was first designed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's (UPMC) Sports Medicine Concussion Program to reduce the occurrence of concussions.
"Overall preliminary findings are quite encouraging, and we will continue these studies over the next several years," said Dr. Collins, the assistant director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program.
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