In Winthrop, new helmet tech provides impact data for coaches, medical staff

Winthrop football team receives 50 high‑tech helmets to help curb head injuries

A generous donation from a local businessman has equipped the Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall‑Dale football program with a fleet of 50 state‑of‑the‑art Riddell Axiom helmets that log impact data. The gift—worth more than $30,000—comes at a time when high‑school safety protocols are under intense scrutiny.

The helmets, each equipped with five impact sensors, will stay with the student athletes throughout their high‑school careers. According to Coach Joel Stoneton, the program’s head coach and athletic director, the new gear offers a “neutral piece of information” that helps players understand where and how they are being hit. “Sometimes you don’t really understand it until you have a neutral piece of information,” Stoneton said. “Then you can see very clearly that you’re not using the correct part of your body.”

A gift that goes beyond the field

The donation was made by Walter Wiacek, a part‑time resident of Winthrop and chief financial officer of Fenway Partners, the private‑equity firm that owns Riddell. Stoneton met Wiacek through a mutual acquaintance and said the businessman had watched a few of the local games before deciding to contribute.

“He donated 50 helmets and wrote a check for $30,000 to cover them,” Stoneton recalled. “He said he’d been to a couple of our games and liked the local vibe.”

Wiacek’s contribution covers not only the purchase of the helmets—each retailing just over $1,000—but also an analytic software subscription that is normally an optional add‑on. The software, part of Riddell’s “team‑wide” offering, allows coaches to receive daily emails with impact reports for every player on the team.

Data‑driven coaching

At the Maxwell Athletic Complex in Winthrop, the Riddell Axiom helmet’s sensors feed real‑time data to the coaching staff. Coach Stoneton said that the information has already helped him correct a varsity player’s tackling technique after the athlete was inadvertently dropping his head during drills, resulting in impacts to the crown of the helmet.

“I was able to spend extra time with that varsity player, show him the data, and fix it. Get his head up and see your target,” Stoneton explained. “More importantly, medically, my athletic trainer can look that up and tell where that impact was on the student.”

Sam Farago, the Winthrop athletic trainer from MaineGeneral Sports Medicine, uses the data to monitor head injuries and to advise coaches and players about safer playing styles. Stoneton said that once the player saw his own impact data, his habits changed—an example of how objective feedback can reinforce safer technique.

A broader vision for safety

Stoneton believes the helmet data could help identify thresholds that signal a concussion or a more serious brain injury. “The more of these helmets that are out there recording data the more we’ll be able to hone in on, maybe get to those thresholds when a concussion happens,” he said. “It’s just more information to keep our kids safer.”

The Riddell Axiom helmet is one of the most advanced in the country. It contains five impact sensors that record the direction, magnitude, and frequency of hits. The company’s analytics software translates the raw data into user‑friendly reports that can be emailed to coaches and trainers. Riddell is the only helmet manufacturer that integrates sensors into its helmets; the technology is similar to the voluntary NFL program that was halted in 2015 due to data accuracy and privacy concerns.

Community outreach and future costs

The helmets were custom‑fit to each player before the 2026 season and will remain with them for the duration of their high‑school football career. New players will go through the same fitting process. The Winthrop staff, including a Riddell representative, received training on how to interpret the data and incorporate it into coaching strategies.

Stoneton said he was mindful of the long‑term financial implications. “As a small‑town athletic director, I needed to be sure the helmet fitting and continued use of sensor analytics would be affordable in the future,” he said. “Football helmets are routinely sent back to the manufacturers after each season to be reconditioned. The cost of reconditioning and updating the Riddell system for the next season or a new player is not much different than it would be for any other helmet.”

A community invested in kids’ safety

The donation reflects a growing trend of high‑school programs adopting technology to reduce head injuries. In 2016, the University of New England used headband sensors to study impacts in men’s lacrosse, and other schools have begun experimenting with sensor‑equipped gear.

For Winthrop’s 2026 season, the Riddell Axiom helmets provide a tangible tool for coaches, trainers, and players alike. By giving objective data on how and where players are impacted, the program hopes to not only improve technique but also to contribute to the broader conversation about concussions, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and youth football safety.