WHEELING, W.Va. - After suffering a concussion last season, Wheeling Central Catholic High School junior linebacker Dustin Sanner no longer steps onto the field without added protection. He now wears a Guardian Cap — an extra layer of soft-shell padding placed over his helmet designed to reduce the impact of head collisions.
“I feel a little difference,” Sanner said. “I mean, the contact isn’t as forceful, and it’s not really heavy on my helmet, so I can’t really tell it’s there.”
Wheeling Central Catholic’s longtime head football coach Mike Young, now in his 55th season, said his team is doing everything it can to reduce the risk of injury. That includes safer practice strategies.
“We use shields that are rubber or somewhat packed with it, and we tackle dummies,” Young said. “It is very helpful to do that because you can still teach physicality with those and not jeopardize the well-being of the players.”
The conversation around football safety intensified in West Virginia after the death of Cohen Craddock, a Madison Middle School student who passed away from a traumatic brain injury sustained during football practice in 2024.
In response, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 585, also known as the Cohen Craddock Student Athlete Safety Act. The proposed legislation would have mandated the use of Guardian Caps for all youth football players in the state, but the bill didn’t pass this year, meaning there is no requirement for schools to use the additional protections.
According to the CDC, more than two-thirds of concussions in high school sports are caused by head-on collisions. Although the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission has approved these soft-shell caps for use during both practice and games, very few athletes across the state are using them.
Senator Eric Tarr, of R-Putnam, who is also a licensed physical therapist, voted in favor of the bill. However, he said he is skeptical about the caps’ effectiveness.
“I think that although the intentions were very well-founded for that bill, it didn’t really have a lot of good science behind it,” Tarr said. “Relative to the expense that it takes to manage concussions well and reduce concussions, I think that it took away from the ability to actually direct money towards stuff that had some science behind it.”
Each Guardian Cap costs approximately $60 — a price that some school officials said may be more than certain districts can afford.
Wheeling Central Catholic’s athletic trainer Braeden Carroll said he remains cautious about relying solely on protective gear. Instead, he said the focus should be on education when it comes to head injuries.
“It’s a common misconception that concussions are [about] protecting the outside of the head,” Carroll said. “But the concussions actually occur from the brain hitting off the inside of your skull. If you put more padding on the outside of the head, that’s not necessarily going to slow your brain from hitting the inside of your skull.”
Carroll said the most effective way to combat concussions is through awareness — teaching players, coaches, and parents how to recognize, prevent, and properly treat them.
While Senate Bill 585 passed in the Senate, it was never brought to a vote in the House. Lawmakers said there’s a chance it may be reintroduced during the next legislative session.
This article was adapted from a television news story using AI. All reporting, facts and quotes from sources are original. AI was only used to assist with formatting and style for a digital platform.