Arkansas High School Student Discovers Venomous Snake Inside His Football Helmet
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A football helmet is designed to protect one’s head from injury, but what if it has a snake inside it?
With school getting back into session, football fields and gear are being dusted off as the fall nears.
For one high school football player in Maumelle, Arkansas, practice meant discovering a venomous snake waiting for him in his helmet.
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See The Venomous Snake, And How It Was Safely Removed From The Helmet
In Southern states like Arkansas, snakes — especially venomous ones — are not uncommon.
Unbeknownst to the student, the helmet was worn for over an hour with a snake inside it.
Eventually, the student realized something was off and alerted Kirk Horton, athletic director at Maumelle High, to the situation.
Responding to a call of a snake at Maumelle High School on Aug. 6, officers with the Department of Maumelle Animal Services were able to confirm what kind of snake was inside the helmet, while also getting creative on how to remove it safely.
Horton’s report made to animal services indicated that the prevailing thought was that there was a copperhead in the student’s football helmet.
However, local KATV notes that when animal services arrived on the scene that it was found to be a different kind of snake.
Altogether, USA Today reports that there was a veterinarian, four animal control officers, and the director of the Maumelle Animal Services there to assist with the situation.
Chris Davis, director of Maumelle Animal Services, recalled to KATV, “They verified it was not a copperhead, but it possibly was a cottonmouth or a water snake.”
Ultimately, they were able to identify it properly after removing it from the helmet, finding that it was a cottonmouth, also known as a water moccasin.
Still, how did they remove the snake from the helmet?
Speaking from experience, Davis told KATV, “I’ve removed a snake out of a car vent, in the engine, purses, backpacks. In a helmet? Never.”
The cottonmouth snake — which Davis said is probably the second-most deadly snake in Arkansas, behind the rattlesnake — had wedged itself inside the helmet, presenting a challenge for animal services.
Horton expounded on this in an email sent to USA Today, writing, “The snake was wound up tight between the helmet padding and the exterior of the helmet.”
Taking the helmet away from the football training area, animal services transported the helmet to an area in the woods near the Arkansas River.
There, Davis decided that using water to force the snake out from the helmet was going to be the most effective approach to removing the reptile, telling USA Today, “I decided that the best course of action was to flood the snake out. Our tools were not going to be effective.”
When the snake slithered from out of the helmet, it was found to be two feet long.
Describing the whole situation, Davis said, “It was very unreal. You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.”
After removing the snake from the helmet, it was safely relocated to the wild.
Horton said that the student, whose identity was not disclosed to the press, requested another helmet and resumed practice as normal.
Since then, coaches on the team have been reminding students to check their football gear.
In his email to USA Today, Horton said, “Coaches have always said ‘Check your helmets,’ but that is usually for bugs. This will put much more emphasis on that statement.”
Of course, he expressed gratitude that no one was hurt in the Aug. 6 incident… an incident that will be long remembered in Maumelle.
See a photo of the snake being flushed out from the helmet, here:
Here’s a photo of the snake making its escape:
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