A high school football player in Arkansas spent an hour practicing with a venomous snake in his helmet.
Coaches at Maumelle High School eventually made the shocking discovery of the creature wriggling after the player noticed unusual movement inside his helmet. He flagged the problem to his defensive coach, who alerted Athletic Director Kirk Horton.
The snake, eventually determined to be a cottonmouth, was hiding underneath the helmet’s padding, making it difficult to remove as it was roughly two-foot-long.
‘It really was just shock and disbelief,’ Horton told KARK. ‘I’ve got a better shot at winning the lottery than seeing this in my ten years.’
After using a tote bag to secure the helmet and snake, Animal Services were called to the high school.
Animal Services Director Chris Davis claimed the young player was fortunate not to be bitten by the venomous creature, that was eventually removed from the helmet and relocated to a forested area far away from the school.
The player felt movement inside his helmet with a snake hiding inside the padding
The venomous snake was roughly two-foot-long
The snake had to be washed out of the helmet and was then safely removed
‘When the officers got there and stuff, they examined the helmet, and at that time they could see that there was a snake in the helmet,’ Davis said, via KATV. ‘They verified it was not a copperhead, but it possibly was a cottonmouth or a water snake.’
After being given a new helmet, the player continued practicing after the shock ordeal.
Players were later given a simple message to check their equipment before putting it on to avoid a similar scare as the team hosted a scheduled safety meeting later in the day.
Despite his years working in animal services, Davis was perplexed by the shocking incident.
‘I’ve removed a snake out of a car vent, in the engine, purses, backpacks,’ he said. ‘In a helmet? Never.
‘It was very unreal. You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.’
Cottonmouth snakes seek shelter in dark, protected spaces, and on this occasion it had to be flooded out of the padding to be safely captured.
The situation would have been much more serious had the player been bitten, with Davis warning: ‘The cottonmouth, in my opinion, is probably the second most venomous snake here in Arkansas. I would say the rattlesnake is probably the number one.’
