When the Mingus Marauders football team kicks off its season this August, you may notice something different about the team.
The players will be sporting new helmets.
The helmets are darker and will feature the Marauders logo on one side and the players number on the other, as well as stripe of red reflective tape that runs down the middle and has tiny Marauders logos on it.
“It is something new for the kids to get excited about,” Mingus football coach Robert Ortiz said. “Getting them to buy in to what we want to do, so they can perform their best on the field.”
Mingus’s new helmets replace the Tampa Bay Buccaneer logo on the side of the helmet with the players’ number.
“Those helmets will be the only helmets we have,” Ortiz said.
In his first season last year, Ortiz led the Marauders to a 9-3 record and the second round of the playoffs.
Mingus hired Ortiz last May after former coach Bob Young stepped down.
“We were just trying to match the helmets to the new jerseys purchased last year before my time here,” Ortiz said. “As a staff, we sat down and talked about keeping kids excited and retaining buy-in to the program.”
“It is to motivate the players but at the end of the day, players win football games not helmets,”
The Marauders season kicks off on Friday, Aug. 23, when Mingus faces Combs High School.
