Larry Wendereusz tells his wife all the time he’s sorry that “I’ll be forgetful as we get older.”

The Slippery Rock High School head football coach said he believes he had three concussions as a high school senior. After one of them, “I walked off the field sideways, I don’t remember any part of the game.” He asked his 14-year-old brother to drive him home after a game once because he wasn’t able to.

“We just didn’t know,” Wendereusz said last week.

Now a coach, he’s seen high school football adopt heat acclimatization practices, concussion protocols and higher-quality helmets. Now, there are Guardian Caps.

Guardian Caps are fabric, cushioned shells that sit on the outside of a football helmet. Guardian, the company that produces them, claims the caps help reduce the impact of hits to the head.

Football fans have seen an increased use of them in college during practices and in the NFL, which now mandates most position groups use them during practices and is allowing players the option to wear them during games. Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor became the highest-profile player to wear one during a preseason game in August. Steelers offensive lineman James Daniels also wore one during preseason games.

They also are gaining traction at the high school level; a Butler Eagle survey of teams in Butler County found most varsity programs now use them during practice, either mandatorily or voluntarily, depending on the team. The PIAA gives players the option to wear them during games.

“Any time you get the word safety and preventative with concussions, we’re gonna look into it,” said Wendereusz, who first looked into Guardian Caps after he learned Grove City High School’s team was using them.

Butler ordered 100 caps three years ago, head coach Eric Christy said.

The Golden Tornado is playing an independent schedule this season, in the midst of a program-wide rebuild Christy has overseen for several years. Christy had 24 players on varsity one year, he said during the Eagle’s “Eye On Sports” live podcast in early August. There are 65 players listed on Butler’s MaxPreps roster this season, and preaching safety was something Christy leaned on to get students to join the team.

“It was a recruiting tool mainly for me,” he said. “The boosters and I sat down — the one thing I get from all the parents is (safety questions).

“We can say (to parents), ‘Hey, we’re doing anything in our power to protect your player,’” said Christy about his recruiting pitch to concerned parents. “We want to be on the cutting edge.”

Cost is a factor. Both Butler and Slippery Rock’s football programs had to raise funds through their booster clubs to purchase the caps.

Butler paid between $6,000 and $7,000, Christy said.

Wendereusz said Slippery Rock paid $2,394.20 for its first shipment of Guardian Caps. The first year, players took turns using them during contact drills since they didn’t have enough for the whole team. The Rockets held a fundraiser to get 40 more after the season.

North Catholic ordered caps before this season. Second-year head coach Chris Rizzo said it allows coaches to “feel good about hitting drills and getting young guys good reps.”

“I can tell you this, those Guardian Caps have been effective,” he said. “I'm interested to see where the rest of college and NFL football goes with them, and what the trickle down effect in high school will be.”

In texts, head coaches from Knoch, Mars and Seneca Valley said their teams now use them in practice, with the Raiders’ use voluntary for each player.

Union/A-C Valley coach Dan Reed said his team does not yet use the gear because of cost, but it’s on the radar. Freeport coach John Gaillot said the Yellowjackets will have them next year. Karns City does not have Guardian Caps either.

While admittedly “awkward at first” for players to wear, Wendereusz said, coaches and players quickly adapted.

“I don't really notice them,” North Catholic senior lineman Roman Sylvester said during training camp.

“You don't think it does much, but the Guardian Caps really do help,” teammate Brady O’Hara said.

According to Guardian Caps’ website, the NFL “reported a 52% reduction in concussions for those positions” that were required to wear the caps during practice in 2022 compared to the previous three-year average. Neither the league nor the company have released their findings.

But other independent studies across the country aren’t as clear.

Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab director, Dr. Steve Rowson, told CNN in August the caps reduce impact force, especially the thicker models the NFL uses. The standard model showed a 5% reduction in the force of acceleration, while the NFL model showed as much as a 14% reduction. The lab’s study is under review for publication in a journal.

A study by Stanford, though, showed Guardian Caps provided minimal added protection.

Associated professor of bioengineering David Camarillo, Ph.D., and his team found 15-20% more protection provided by the caps when hit by another helmet with no cap during lab tests. But on-field studies of a handful of Cardinal players in 2019 and 2021 “failed to show a significant reduction in the impact from blows that didn’t cause concussion.”

According to CNN, two other studies at the University of North Carolina and University of Nevada, Reno, didn’t find a statistical difference in the measure of force on head impacts between players who did and didn’t wear the caps.

Camarillo and other researchers called for “more and larger studies.”

But Guardian’s reported results and the increased adoption at the pro and college levels is evidence enough for many coaches. At a minimum, current studies have shown the caps are not harmful and may provide some benefits to some, but perhaps not all, hits to the head.

Christy and Wendereusz think more teams in Pennsylvania will purchase Guardian Caps or similar accessories. Whether the National Federation of State High School Associations, whose guidelines the PIAA follows, will one day mandate caps during games is unclear.

But the next step could be seeing players opt to wear them on their own during games. Through two seasons and two weeks this season, Christy has not had a player wear one in a game yet.

“They look kind of goofy,” Christy said. “I think part of it is the kids are all about looks. ... Trying to get them past the mindset of not just something looking good.”

Both coaches think it's also possible schools begin to make them part of their annual football budget, replacing old caps in multi-year cycles much like they do helmets, pads and jerseys. Guardian says the caps can last “a few seasons” at the youth and high school level, depending on usage.

“Let’s hope that more districts say we’re gonna do this,” Wendereusz said.