How high-tech mouthguards at Aliquippa High School are gathering data about head impacts in football

Football season is kicking into high gear and so is a research project using technology and physics to study head impacts in football. At Aliquippa High School, home to one of the most storied football teams in the region, a Penn State University researcher is studying head impacts to keep players safer.

When the Quips take the field to defend their status as WPIAL champions, they'll be the only ones with a high-tech tool in their mouth. It's a mouthguard with wireless scanners.

"It actually feels better than a mouthguard because you can talk with it on. You actually forget it's in there sometimes," says Mylez Greene, a senior football player at Aliquippa High School. 

Greene wore the special mouthguard last year for the head impact study, and this year, ten more Aliquippa High School players will wear them.

Dr. Reuben Kraft leads the research at Penn State, funded by the Chuck Noll Foundation, and came to Aliquippa High School to scan the players' mouths for custom-fitted mouthguards with the sensors.

"The mouthguard, 'instrumented mouthguard' we call them, has accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth, battery, proximity sensor, all embedded inside this custom-fit mouthguard. In a harsh environment, it's wireless power, wireless communications. I would argue that that's really kind of NASA-level stuff."

During football games, Aliquippa High School athletic trainer Mike McGarvey can see the data transmitted from each mouthpiece when the impact to the head is strong enough. Kraft and his team then create computer simulations of how the head impact causes strain on the brain and in what region of the brain.

Researchers then compare the computer simulation to the results of a physical and mental test the players go through after a significant impact. The goal is for doctors someday to be able to use the information from the mouthpiece scan to treat head injuries.

In addition to studying the players at Aliquippa High School, they're also studying Division II players at St. Vincent College and Division I players at Western Carolina University. They found the head impacts at Aliquippa High School were comparable to Division I football. One reason could be that most football players at Aliquippa High School play both offense and defense.

"I think that's one of the big things that a lot of people miss is you're exposing these kids twice the amount of times to these hits, and that's tough," McGarvey says.

Last year's study looked at two players at Aliquippa who played linebacker, running back and lineman. They averaged 162 head impacts in the season, which included both small and significant head impacts.

Greene says sometimes he feels dizzy after a big hit but has not had a concussion. He does think about the safety of his brain.

"It has worried me because I do hit a lot," Greene says. "Ninety-plus snaps is a lot of plays, so it does worry me sometimes, but I know if I just be safe and do what I do, do what the coaches tell me, wear the right protection on my head, I'll be cool."

McGarvey says the research showing the number of impacts likely helped Aliquippa High School in its successful bid to move down from Class 4A to 3A this season. He also says the data from the mouthpiece scanners is already helping them improve player technique.

"So if I've seen a constant correlation, maybe everything going to the front of the head, maybe you're ducking your head too much," McGarvey says.

Kraft has run more than 100,000 brain simulations in his first year of the study and will have hundreds of thousands more this year. The hope is that technology and science will lead to a better understanding of head injury and how to keep the brain safe in the game that the Quips, and so many people, love.

"Our goal is to be able to provide the sideline information to the coach, the trainer, the clinician, the parent, the player, whoever it might be, to be able to see, 'I had this impact that I sustained. What do I do?'" Kraft says. 

In addition to studying football, the research is also looking at men's and women's lacrosse at St. Vincent and girls soccer at Western Carolina.

KDKA has done several stories on head injuries following KDKA weatherman Jon Burnett's diagnosis with CTE and other brain injuries that were likely a result of playing football from childhood all the way through the University of Tennessee. Burnett died Feb. 20, 2025, and donated his brain for research at The National Sports Brain Bank and the Athletic Brain Study at the University of Pittsburgh. Many more people signed up for the research as a result of the stories on Burnett.

If you have done any athletics in your life, from youth sports to the highest levels, you are likely a candidate for the National Sports Brain Bank and the Athletic Brain Study at the University of Pittsburgh. You can learn more about how to participate in the study on brain injuries on Pitt's website.