As a former college athlete, American Youth Football Hall of Fame coach, and parent of student-athletes, HitCheck CEO Mike Piha understands firsthand how seriously head impacts must be taken in sports.

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Over more than 30 years of playing and coaching, Mike observed the limitations of traditional approaches used to evaluate athletes after head impacts—many of which relied heavily on subjective observation, delayed symptom recognition, and inconsistent access to objective tools.

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Recognizing the potential long-term consequences associated with unrecognized changes in cognitive function, Mike was motivated to apply his passion for coaching to a new challenge: helping bridge the gap between the field of play and practical, accessible cognitive assessment.

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That mission led him to Jake Benford, MD, a sports medicine physician with extensive experience supporting athletes at the collegiate and professional levels, who shared similar concerns about the lack of efficient, field-ready assessment tools available to athletic programs.

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Drawing on his clinical experience, Jake had been exploring ways to provide athletes and care teams with tools to monitor cognitive performance over time and observe changes following head impacts—without disrupting the pace of sport or placing additional burden on staff.

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United by a shared commitment to athlete well-being, and informed by complementary backgrounds as player, coach, and team physician, Mike and Jake brought together a multidisciplinary team of neurologists, engineers, athletes, and data scientists to develop a new approach.

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The result is HitCheck: a practical, affordable, on-location cognitive assessment aid designed to help coaches, trainers, and qualified professionals efficiently establish baselines, observe changes in cognitive performance, and support consistent post-impact evaluation workflows.