POCAHONTAS – The Pocahontas School District football team will have new helmets as Coach Charles Baty requested the board to purchase new, improved concussion resistant helmets from Xenith, a new helmets manufacturing company, on Feb. 24.

Baty said they could buy the Xenith helmets which, go for $440 each through a Stack program where the school will pay $125 per helmet. He said the Xenith helmets are made with the latest technology which include an adjustable pad and band, and can be custom adjusted to fit large and small size heads.

“My main concern is to keep our children safe, and the new helmets are of superior quality, number one rated according to a Virginia Tech study. We received a case of reported concussion and we don’t want that to happen to our children. My goal is to put them in the best helmet; we all look alike; we all feel valued,” Baty said.

Baty said the helmets they used before, although of durable quality, did not have the adjustable pads and bands to keep the helmet tightly fixed on the players’ heads. The team currently has only 12 concussion resistant helmets. The new helmets, if purchased, will cost $40 each to recondition every year for five years.

Baty said both junior and senior high school teams needed a total of 115 helmets. Currently, the school spends $41,000 a year to recondition the current helmets.

“From the financial step, I think this is a good deal, coach your looking after the kids impresses me,” Gary Cole, the vice president of the board, said.

Cole said putting the children’s welfare first was more important. He said the helmet was also affordable and within the football budget.

“What I like about this Xenith helmet is you can tighten the bands and custom it to fit your child’s head such that when it’s knocked, it doesn’t fall off,” Secretary Karen Baltz reiterated.

In the girls’ basketball games, senior girls will play Pulaski Robinson in the first round of regionals at Valley View Thursday, Feb. 27, beginning at 4.p.m.