When the Palmerton High School football team takes to the field for the start of its season next week, it will do with a state-of-the-art helmet feature.

Head football coach Chris Walkowiak gave a presentation to the school board on Tuesday about the new Riddell Revolution Speed helmets with InSite that team members will use."We're only one of three schools in the Eastern part of the state using this," Walkowiak said. "It's a great investment."All told, 24 additional Riddell Revolution Speed helmets with InSite were ordered to compliment the 70 Riddell Revolutiog Speed helmets with the InSite feature the program already had to cover every football player in the program, grades 7-12, according to Andrew Remsing, director of athletics and activities.Remsing said the cost is $375 per helmet with the InSite included. Of that, the district will pay for half of them this year, while the other half will be purchased from out of next year's athletic reconditioning budget, he said."We had to buy new helmets anyway because of our numbers in the varsity and junior high school level," Remsing said. "We have over 90 athletes out grades 7-12."Director Sherry Haas commended Walkowiak and the rest of the high school football coaching staff."I would like to see this on our web site under athletics," Haas said. "Kudos to us and being in the forefront of this."How it worksThe system is the latest in a series of recent innovations that incorporates state-of-the-art features that are new to the football field.Riddell InSite is a new integrated monitoring and alerting tool designed specifically for the proactive protection of football players.The Riddell Revolution Speed helmet features an increased shell offset that gives the helmet room to manage a broad range of impact types without compromising its response at higher-level impacts. The Tru-Curve protective shell extends into the mandible area to help reduce the impact of blows to the side of the head, face and jaw area.As the first to implement head impact monitoring and recording systems, Riddell developed InSite using data collected by Riddell's Sideline Response System (SRS) with Head Impact Telemetry (HITS).Since 2004, Riddell SRS has analyzed millions of impacts from youth to elite football competition, and its data has led to impactful changes to rules, how the game is played and coached, and has informed new helmet designs with enhanced protective benefits.Riddell InSite utilizes new integrated technology to monitor and record significant head impacts sustained during a football game or practice.Coaches and other sideline staff will now have Riddell InSite's unique vantage point of what goes on inside the helmet at the time of contact.InSite is designed to alert team staff of high risk single and multiple head impacts, and enable improved identification and management of concussion.About RiddellFor over 80 years, Riddell has been the recognized leader in helmet technology and innovation.Founded with the mission to make sports equipment safer, better and easier to use, Riddell continues to address the evolving protective equipment needs of the athlete.Today, Riddell equipment is seen on football fields from coast-to-coast, protecting every level of player, from youth athletes to National Football League professionals.