KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s spring practices will kickoff in three weeks to begin preparation for the 2020 campaign, Jeremy Pruitt’s third season as head coach for the Vols.
During Pruitt’s tenure at Tennessee, soft shell helmets have been visible and worn by players during practices. Soft shell helmets have also been worn by athletes taking part in University of Tennessee camps.
Tennessee’s soft shell helmets are made by GameBreaker, a company that has been named as the 10th Fastest Growing Manufacturer in America by INC. MAGAZINE.
Michael Juels, President of GameBreaker, discussed his product with Vols Wire and how a partnership began with the University of Tennessee when Pruitt took over as head coach.
“We love them as a customer and partner,” Juels told Vols Wire. “They are great coaches and even better people.”
Brandon Sheppard, UT’s Associate Director of Football Operations, has been a difference maker for Tennessee’s program in taking on a role for player safety and helping strike a deal with GameBreaker.
“We met Brandon while doing an event with the Los Angeles Rams and had a 32 team high school 7on7 tournament,” Juels said. “The headgear was mandated. Brandon was there representing USA Football, and with him coming from the state of Alabama, he had never seen 7on7 played with soft shell headgear. In Alabama they still wear traditional hard-shelled helmets during 7on7 activities. They are actually one of a few states remaining that does this.
“He immediately thought this is the way it should be done because you are de-weaponizing the head and if you hit someone in the knee or collarbone it is not going to hurt them. He was instantly sold and when he landed at Tennessee he reached out and it has been a great collaboration.”
Juels mentioned that GameBreaker’s deal with Tennessee is for three years and concludes Dec. 31, 2020.
“We obviously assume they are going to continue forward with us,” he said of Tennessee. “In year one they bought a few hundred head gear, year two they bought a couple hundred and this year they will do the same. They are also using them for all their campers. It has been a great relationship for us along with GameBreaker being the official sponsor of University of Tennessee’s football camps.
“The University of Tennessee has done a great job of creating a culture of player safety. They make sure when athletes are on campus that they are as safe as they can be. Brandon is who we worked with in doing the whole deal. UT came in to buy headgear from us and we were so impressed with how they were handling it, and handling their athletes. It has been a two-way relationship and it has worked out really well with Tennessee and players coming into their camps. They have done a great job of being proactive and taking a stance as far as keeping athletes safe. A lot of these camps across the country do not go to the same lengths that Tennessee is. It speaks well for them and is impressive when you are a camper and it is the first piece of UT gear you will ever put on. We are proud to be that company.”
GameBreaker material
GameBreaker-PRO is a soft shell helmet designed for athletes to be protected for both low and high energy impacts.
The headgear is powered by an innovative smart molecule technology known as D3O.
“We have a proprietary material that we have a global exclusive on called D3O,” Juels said. “It is a smart molecule technology and it is rate sensitive. On low energy impacts it remains soft and pillowy. On high force impact, the molecules lockup and the material stiffens and hardens to give them maximum protection upon impact. It then instantaneously flexes back to its free-flowing state and becomes soft and pillowy like it was before the impact.
“It is rate sensitive, so the harder the impact, the more it hardens and protects the athlete. The product that they are using is 5-star rated and tested by a third-party lab, Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech helmet labs does all of the helmet testing for the NCAA, NFL and all of the hard shell helmets. They also do testing on soft shell helmets and we have owned that space. We not only invented the soft shell headgear space, but we pioneered the market, meaning before us there was not anyone really doing this in football in days that you were not in full pads. Back in the day you used to play 7on7 with nothing, and we have changed that, and we are now 99.9 percent of the market.”
Brandon Sheppard’s bio
Sheppard has worked in football since 1991, dating back to his student athletic training time at West Alabama from 1991-95.
From there, Sheppard worked in the New York Mets organization from 1995-97. He served as a certified athletic trainer, providing athletic training services to players at all levels of the organization from the Major League to in-coming rookie league, including teams in the Arizona Fall League, Hawaiian Winter Baseball League, Fall Instructional League and early spring training with pitchers and catchers.
Sheppard joined Hoover High School in 1999. He served as head athletic trainer until 2015. At Hoover, Sheppard created the National Select 7on7 Championships in 2002. It developed into a 16 event and National Championship.
In 2015, Sheppard became the Director of USA Football until taking on his new position at Tennessee in 2018. Directing the USA Football 7on7 Program, Sheppard held responsibility for overall success of the program. His organizational skills played a big part in the program’s success of operation, management and development of a series of high school football 7on7 regional tournaments, part of USA Football’s high school football development program.