By Vinny D.
On Tuesday January 28th, The Broncos and their owners, the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group, released a new program called “All in. All Covered.” This new program will help improve the safety of schools from the smallest Colorado high schools' 6 man football teams to its biggest 5A teams.
The question the owners asked themselves was: "What would it take to provide and protect every Colorado high school football player with new and safer helmets?” Their answer was a $12 million plan that would provide every football program in Colorado with a special and safe helmet, named the Riddell Axiom, with a 4 year plan that will start in Fall 2025.
In Colorado there are a total of 277 schools that will receive 25% of their total helmets each year. This will be calculated from the average roster size of their team and its classification. As of now the helmet will surpass a total of 15,516 helmets.
The Ridell Axiom is a state of the art helmet made to fit the athletes head specifically. The program chose this helmet based off of the safety and performance features included. This helmet features a Tru-Fit System which scans the athletes head creating a system of pads that use 3d imaging for the head of the custom helmets. The helmet also comes with InSite Smart Helmet Technology, which is an impact observing and reporting system that collects and gives head impact data from the field to the sideline or even the athletes parents.
Mountain Range specifically was a part of this new initiative as MRHS football player Cameron. W (11th) was first hand a part of this new initiative as he was a part of the commercial made by the Denver Broncos and the Walton-Penner family.
“It was a great experience, the other people invited and the Penner family were really nice to meet. The program is great with the helmets making the game safer,” Cameron said when talking about the new program and being a part of this great change.
“I think the best part of the program is we get brand new equipment and the worst part is the lack of availability,” says another Mountain Range football player, Eric D. (11th).
Overall the program is huge for the state of Colorado as well as current and future high school players around the State of Colorado for the next 4 years.