Kentucky high school teams go helmet-to-helmet in Twitter contest
With high school sports shelved by the coronavirus, another kind of competition has sprung up on social media celebrating some of the best-looking football helmet designs by pitting them against each other on Twitter.
Leslie County assistant football coach Justin Collett saw the account @hshelmettourney while scrolling through his feed one day. While the account, believed to have been started by a coach in Iowa last month, only has 1,582 followers as of Saturday, it has inspired a nationwide state-by-state tournament with teams from 46 states joining in.
“I thought I was just entering our helmet I designed into a contest,” Collett explained. “I didn’t know I would be running the whole state of (Kentucky).”
Collett took up the challenge — first, by compiling a list of 64 teams to begin Kentucky’s tournament, and then, by setting up the Twitter voting which includes examples of the helmets in each head-to-head matchup. He’s doing it all from his own account @CoachCollettLC. It has been a huge task, but it has also been rewarding.
“I’m only 23. So, being a young coach networking, talking football and making connections with some of the coaches I’ve looked up to has been a great experience,” Collett said. He has gained more than 600 Twitter followers since it started.
Kentucky’s competition is ongoing with votes for the Sweet 16 still being taken Saturday morning. The quarterfinals begin Sunday with the semifinals and finals later in the week. Each contest averages nearly 1,000 votes.
Teams who remain alive as of Saturday morning are: Harlan County, Paintsville, Phelps, Leslie County, Corbin, Hopkinsville, Covington Catholic, Bourbon County, Pikeville, Russellville, Belfry, Crittenden County, Lexington Christian, Great Crossing, Shelby Valley, and Fleming County.
The state winner presumably would then be entered into a nationwide fan vote.
This story was originally published May 23, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
