'Hearts' Focus Includes Action Planning
November 12, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As most of Michigan’s high school athletes move inside this month for the start of winter sports, many will take part in a program introduced to Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools this fall that assists coaches and students in preparing for the possibility of a health emergency during their after-school practices and events.
Prior to the start of this 2015-16 school year, the MHSAA sent every member school the “Anyone Can Save a Life” emergency action plan authored by the Minnesota State High School League and the Medtronic Foundation. The program instructs schools to assemble teams made up of coaches and their students that will act in the event someone suffers sudden cardiac arrest or another emergency medical situation.
“Anyone Can Save a Life” suggests a game plan that establishes four teams on every level of every sport in a school – a 911 Team, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) Team, AED (automated external defibrillator) Team and Heat Stroke Team. The groups are made up of coaches and their students who will be in close proximity to all after-school activities.
It’s another valuable tool as the MHSAA begins work on the fourth piece of its eight-year “4 H’s” health and safety emphasis. The next two school years focus on Hearts to go with efforts over the last six years centered on Health Histories, Heads and Heat issues faced by MHSAA athletes. This fall, for the first time, all varsity head coaches at MHSAA member schools were required to have CPR certification – another means by which athletic personnel can work to counter the random, unpredictable nature of sudden cardiac arrest.
“There is something we can do. We can be prepared. We can develop emergency plans, display AEDs and deliver CPR. And, like any good sports teams, we need to practice our preparations,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “’Anyone Can Save a Life’ can help schools revise or revitalize their existing emergency plans in ways that engage team members in planning, practice and execution. This could help save lives now and also convey important lifelong life-saving lessons to students involved on these teams.”
Students are a vital component to having a successful emergency action plan. They will be put in position to call 911, meet the ambulance at a pre-determined access point, locate the nearest AED, make sure immersion tubs are filled for hot-weather practices, and for those who are trained, to assist with CPR. Coaches identify students at the beginning of the season and prior to an emergency taking place, and provide them with the details of the job they are assigned so they will be ready to assist in the event of an emergency.
The “Anyone Can Save a Life” plan was sent to schools nationwide with assistance from the National Federation of State High School Associations and the NFHS Foundation. Click for information on "Anyone Can Save a Life."
“The ‘Anyone Can Save a Life’ initiative promotes the need to have and to practice planning for different kinds of emergencies,” Roberts said. “The result can be a fresh, comprehensive emphasis on preparing for emergencies well before they occur and then responding with more confidence when those emergencies inevitably happen. It is the perfect link between the last two years when we focused on heat illness and the next two years when we focus on sudden cardiac arrest.”
This fall’s focus on “Hearts” began in the wake of 122 Michigan schools receiving recognition this spring as HEARTSafe by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Department of Education, American Heart Association, Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young and the MHSAA.
Public Act 12 of 2014 requires all schools (grades kindergarten to 12) to have a cardiac emergency response plan in place. This MI HEARTSafe School designation recognizes 122 schools that have taken steps above and beyond to prepare to respond in the event of a cardiac emergency, and is awarded for a period of three years.
In order for a school to receive MI HEARTSafe designation, it must perform at least one cardiac emergency response drill per year, have a written medical emergency response plan and team, have current CPR/AED certification of at least 10 percent of staff, have accessible, properly maintained and inspected AEDs with signs identifying their location, and ensure pre-participation sports screening of all student-athletes using the current physical and history form endorsed by the MHSAA.
Schools that meet all requirements are able to apply for the MI HEARTSafe School designation each year. Click for information and for a list of designated schools.
Century of School Sports: Connection at Heart of Coaches Advancement Program
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 19, 2024
As we believe that educational athletics are an extension of the academic classroom, it’s important to recognize as well that coaches – similar to teachers during the school day – are another first point of contact for more than 170,000 high school athletes and thousands more who play middle school sports in Michigan.
For two decades, the MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program has served as an avenue to provide our coaches with a variety of tools to assist in working through issues they encounter daily while building up their teams and building these relationships.
Past Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts, when writing about the CAP program in 2017, noted “the thousands of dollars and hours that the MHSAA devotes to CAP demonstrates this organization’s belief that nothing – absolutely nothing – is more important in the process of educational athletics than the quality of the coach-athlete connection.”
That commitment and dedication to the coach-athlete connection continues as the MHSAA moves through its 100th anniversary year.
Through the end of the 2023-24 school year, coaches had completed 41,167 sessions within the eight-level program since its creation for the 2004-05 school year. Counting this past weekend’s CAP 1 and 2 courses taught at Detroit Henry Ford, another 1,167 sessions have been completed since the start of the 2024-25 educational year.
The CAP program is broken into nine levels, each addressing a set of topics:
- CAP 1: Coaches Make the Difference, The Coach as Teacher, Sports Medicine and First Aid.
- CAP 2: Effective Communication, Legal Responsibilities, Psychology of Coaching.
- CAP 3: Additional Coaching Responsibilities, Effectively Working with Parents, Managing Time and Energy.
- CAP 4: Understanding Athletic Development, Strength and Conditioning, Preparing for Success.
- CAP 5: Healthy Living, Teaching Emotional Toughness, Resolving Conflicts in Athletics.
- CAP 6, 7, 8 & 9: Current Issues and Topics in Educational Athletics.
Those who complete the program receive a level of certification after their first 12 hours (completing CAP 1 and 2). Through this past school year, 2,295 individuals have advanced through CAP 5 – earning them themselves CAP Masters Certification. From that group, 476 have advanced through CAP 6, 100 through CAP 7 and 87 through CAP 8, with the first class to complete that module in 2015-16. CAP 9 was created this fall.
Perhaps just as notably, 20,960 individuals have completed CAP 1 over the last two decades. Completion of either CAP 1 or CAP 2 became a requirement for first-year varsity head coaches beginning with the 2016-17 school year, and predictably numbers have climbed since that time with 12,515 completing CAP 1 over the last eight school years.
The program is constructed and coordinated by MHSAA Assistant Director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp, who joined the MHSAA staff in 2004 after several years as a principal, athletic director, teacher and coach in Grand Rapids and Forest Hills public schools. She lives the program’s philosophy of providing CAP training “anytime, anywhere” across the state, and over just the last five months CAP 1 alone has been delivered at 19 schools plus during 14 dates at the MHSAA office in East Lansing. Flint Kearsley isn’t on the list of CAP 1 hosts this year, but instead welcomed in 45 students for a CAP 5 session in early August.
Additionally, colleges and universities in Michigan are licensed to present up to five levels through their undergraduate or graduate studies, and eight are scheduled to do so again this school year.
The faculty for 2024-25 includes well-known leaders in Michigan educational athletics, officiating and sports medicine. Instructors include past and present athletic directors, principals, officials, coaches, college professors, athletic trainers, leaders from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) and MHSAA staff.
For more information, see the Coaches Advancement Program page.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Nov. 12: Good Sports are Winners Then, Now & Always - Read
Nov. 5: MHSAA's Home Sweet Home - Read
Oct. 29: MHSAA Summits Draw Thousands to Promote Sportsmanship - Read
Oct. 23: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest Running - Read
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Sept. 25: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS Clockwise from top left: (1) Former Ypsilanti Community and current Wayne Memorial boys basketball coach Steve Brooks (far right) celebrates with a trophy-winning team. (2) Brighton girls lacrosse coach Ashton Peters raises the Division 1 championship trophy in the spring. (3) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball coach Betty Wroubel applauds during pre-match introductions. (4) Trenton baseball coach Todd Szalka (middle) huddles on the mound during last season's Division 2 Semifinals. (5) Past Calumet athletic director Sean Jacques (left) passes the Class C championship trophy to his girls basketball coach in 2015. All five have received levels of CAP certification.