By Chris Hunn, Register Staff

With a handful of his players suffering concussions last season, and the growing concern of head injuries in the spotlight, Oxford football coach Joe Stochmal decided to invest in the Guardian.

A fairly new piece of technology with safety in mind, Guardian Caps are waterproof, one-size-fits-all shells that slip over and strap onto the helmet. A cap weighs just 6½ ounces and is designed to absorb the impact of a hit. Guardian says it reduces the impact by up to 33 percent.

“We had a few concussions that hampered kids from getting back on the field,” Stochmal said. “We purchased a few to curtail that a little bit. If it helps, we’ll purchase more. How good are they? Time will tell. I don’t know. But it’s worth the couple hundred dollars to see if it helps.”

The cost is $55 per protective helmet cover. Oxford purchased six and the players who suffered concussions last season used them recently during the Wolverines’ spring practice session. Stochmal said there were no concussions during the spring.

Matt Simonds, national sales coordinator for Guardian, said 12,000 have been sold. Close to 300 teams in different capacities — at the youth level, high school and college — are using them. Most notably, perhaps, is the University of South Carolina. On the state level, Oxford, St. Paul and Staples, which purchased 115 for its program, are giving them a try. The Wallingford Vikings youth program is looking into purchasing them for the entire league for the 2014 season. The league did not have it in its budget for this season, but will likely be used on an individual basis. Yale coach Tony Reno has also expressed interest in the product.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Whitney Tech set to embark on first varsity season

By Chris Hunn, Register Staff
chunn@nhregister.com / Twitter: @Chris_Hunn

HAMDEN — The story isn’t so much about tackles or touchdowns. It’s more than that.

Whitney Tech will be taking the field as a varsity program for the first time in school history this season. It’s been an uphill battle to get to this point, but the Owls have managed.

Hard work, perseverance and plenty of help from the community have been critical.

“We needed about $100,000 to start the team,” said head coach Victor Cooper recently at a team fundraiser event in Hamden. “You can get away with $50,000. You can maybe slide by with $25,000. We did it with $12,000.”

The circumstances aren’t ideal, but Whitney Tech is making the best of them.

Right now the team has no weight room and no home field. They try and build strength with workouts using their own body weight and are practicing at the old Hamden Middle School. The program only has two coaches and its borrowing equipment like tackling dummies and sleds from Hamden’s Pop Warner league.

“Problem is, these are made for little kids,” Cooper said. “The sled is this high (pointing at a small distance off the ground). We’re going to be low, which isn’t bad.”

As for jerseys, the Southern Connecticut State football team handed down Whitney Tech some old ones. It works out because they are both the Owls. Southern, along with Black and Decker and the Connecticut NFL Alumni Association, have also helped with generous donations.

Peter Dzialo, a teacher at Whitney Tech, gave a home weight set to the team. The school’s carpentry program made plyometric blocks for training and Adirondack chairs for the team to raffle off. University of New Haven football coach Pete Rossomando has offered free clinics for Whitney Tech, which is made up of mostly underclassmen with little to no playing experience.

If there were any doubt that the New Haven football coaches are focused on defense, just take a look at the Chargers latest recruiting class.

Out of the 19 players that UNH is bringing in, 13 of them play defense and eight of them play in the secondary.

According to coach Pete Rossomando, that was an area that the Chargers want to continue to focus on.

“We put a lot of emphasis on defense,” Rossomando said.

Read more from Henry Chisholm here.

YALE: Bulldogs unveil new class of recruits

After being hired in January as Yale’s head football coach, Tony Reno didn’t have much time to put together his first recruiting class for the Bulldogs.

“It was a sprint, but we’re excited about our incoming class,” Reno said.

Yale announced its list of 28 incoming freshmen on Thursday.

BLOG: Complete list of 28 incoming recruits 

Read more from Chris Hunn here.