Bill Moon couldn’t help but thank Zeke Villegas for being his knight in shining armor, with football helmets in tow.
It was August, and Moon, the head football coach at Santa Fe Indian School, needed 19 helmets for his middle school program, as he saw middle school to varsity participation for the sport jump from about 35 players in 2021 to 80 this season. The problem was there were not enough helmets for everyone, and none was coming any time soon — even though an order had been submitted earlier this year.
Supply chain issues, which have been a common problem in the COVID-19 world, were just as much of a challenge for football coaches as they were for the grocer down the street. Because of shortages in warehouse employees at companies like Schutt and Riddell, which supply a majority of helmets nationwide, schools are experiencing at least a six-month wait before their orders are shipped.
Enter Villegas, the owner of Northern New Mexico Sports League.
He had plenty of helmets available, especially since his football league has more than 2,500 children across the North taking part in it. He had helmets to share with Moon, and he was more than willing to send some to him.
Moon said Villegas, who played for him while he coached at Capital in the mid-1990s, helped him keep 19 players on the roster.
“I couldn’t thank him enough,” Moon said. “He told me he couldn’t take care of me until he took care of his league, but he helped me out of a problem. It’s a good problem, though. Not enough helmets is a good thing.”
Moon’s story is one of dozens in Northern New Mexico and around the state. Schools were struggling to find helmets to meet interest at the middle and high school levels in August because most orders will not be filled until December — well after the season ended.
West Las Vegas head coach Adrian Gonzales sent eight extra shells — what coaches commonly call helmets — to help Sante Fe High head coach Andrew Martinez, who saw his roster size swell to over 90 players. Taos head coach Art Abreu Jr. said he had coaches from across the state inquiring about excess helmets.
Happily for Abreu, he ordered his helmets in December and had some to give.
“I feel bad for the teams that are scrounging,” Abreu said. “ ‘How much here? How much there?’ I know Grants [coaches] had to order theirs off of Amazon.”
It was also yet another signal purchasing habits for school districts will have to change. Prior to the pandemic, schools often ordered equipment for fall sports in the spring or early summer, knowing it would arrive before the new season began. Now, the backlog of schools waiting for equipment has pushed delivery times to six months or up to a year.
Marc Ducharme, the athletic director for Santa Fe Public Schools, said ordering for high school programs is easier because coaches have a general sense of how many players will show up for the fall and what they will need. At the middle school level, it’s a different animal.
Most schools do not know how many students will play in a sport until the first week of the new year, Ducharme said, and there has been an increase in participation for volleyball and football.
“For middle schools, they don’t build storage [for football equipment] on site,” Ducharme said. “They’re here [at a district warehouse]. So if one program all of a sudden gets full, it’s hard for us to know.”
This case, Villegas helped the district with 18 helmets for middle school teams, and Capital head coach Joaquin Garcia said he had extra helmets to distribute to the middle schools that feed players to his program.
The solution to schools’ problems is not as simple as going to a sporting goods store. Helmets have to meet certification set by the National Federation of High Schools, Ducharme said, and have to go through a certification process.
Villegas, who was the athletic manager at Capital from 2013 until the 2021-22 school year ended, said he learned how to order equipment from Moon while at Capital to avoid having to buy helmets in large quantities.
“He taught me how to order inventory every year, so that all of our helmets didn’t die at the same time,” Villegas said.
Moon said he always wanted at least six new helmets a year so that if the school lost shells when they were shipped for reconditioning, in which they are inspected and tested to determine their condition, there were enough in stock for players. When companies see that a helmet has cracks in it or has been in use for a long time, it is often discarded, Moon added.
“If you only buy helmets every three or four years, that’s a huge bubble of money for a school district,” Moon said.
Just like most other items, the cost of helmets is on the rise, too. Before COVID-19, schools could purchase helmets ranging from $99 to over $200 for those of higher quality. Martinez said prices have increased by 15 percent to 20 percent, so teams are spending at least $150 for a basic model.
“And you talk to vendors, and they feel bad,” Martinez said. “Overall, I think there’s like a 150 percent increase in sales for vendors across the board. So, if you have supply-chain issues and you have that kind of increase in sales, it’s a perfect storm to not have equipment, and it’s hard.”
But most coaches value quality when it comes to their helmets. Garcia said Capital spent about $250 apiece for his most recent supply of 14 helmets that arrived last year. He added some helmets can cost more than $500, which is a little out of Santa Fe Public Schools’ price range — and his.
“They’re like collegiate helmets that have a little more padding for impacts and stuff like that,” Garcia said. “But the helmets we got, they’re nice helmets. They’re sharp-looking. I wish I could afford the $500 ones, but we don’t have that much to go around.”
Moon said he is willing to pay the higher prices because safety is paramount to him.
“If one kid gets injured, it’s too much,” Moon said. “You’ve got to protect them. You can get away with cheap jerseys or a belt. But when in doubt, you got to be safe, and if you can’t buy safe, don’t play football.”
Another issue that is slowly emerging, though, is maintenance throughout the season. Martinez said the chin straps, screws and padding used for helmets are also in short supply, which can be an issue when game time comes around.
For Saturday’s game against Albuquerque Manzano, Martinez said he brought four helmets from other players who were not playing just to have them in case of an emergency.
“When you don’t have the ability to fix those [helmets] that need it, and you need those pieces,” Martinez said, “it really kinda puts you in a bigger bind in the big picture.”
Ducharme said the schools will likely purchase helmets for next year once the season ends, if not sooner. While it’s not guaranteed they will arrive by next fall, he said it’s better than the alternative that schools faced this year.
“We want to make sure every kid can play and practice safely,” Ducharme said. “And safety is always going to be our number-one goal.”
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