'Anyone Can Save a Life' Aims to Prepare
July 28, 2015
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
It was 2008 when Jody Redman and staff at the Minnesota State High School League developed an emergency action plan to provide guidance and procedure in the event of sudden cardiac arrest during scholastic athletic competition.
The desired response from schools upon receipt of the plan was, well, less than enthusiastic.
“Only about 40 percent of our schools used the information and implemented the program,” said Redman, associate director for the MSHSL. “Our focus was completely on sudden cardiac arrest, that being the worst-case scenario regarding athletic-related health issues.”
The MSHSL asked the University of Minnesota to survey its member schools, and results showed that the majority of schools not on board simply felt a sudden cardiac arrest “would never happen at their school.” Naive or not on the schools’ parts, that was the reality – so Redman went back to revise the playbook.
“We expanded the plan to deal with all emergencies, rather than specific incidents,” Redman said. “Now it’s evolved so that we are prepared to deal with a variety of situations which put participants at risk. We shifted gears and got more schools to participate.”
Did they ever. And not just in Minnesota.
This summer, the “Anyone Can Save a Life” program, authored by the MSHSL and the Medtronic Foundation, is being disseminated to high schools nationwide with the financial support of the NFHS Foundation. The program will reach schools in time for the 2015-16 school year.
Once received, schools will find that there are two options for implementation, via in-person training or online.
“The in-person method is facilitated by the athletic administrator with the assistance of a training DVD” Redman said. “The important element is the follow through, ensuring coaches return their completed Emergency Action Plan (EAP). With the e-learning module on anyonecansavealife.org, individuals will complete an e-learning module that will walk them through the details of their specific plan, and as they answer questions, the information will automatically generate a PDF of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) which they can edit at a later date as information changes.”
Schools will find five major components of the program to be received this summer: the first is an implementation checklist for the AD, explaining their role. Next are sections for in-person training, online training and event staff training. The last item contains a variety of resources that will ensure the successful implementation of a comprehensive emergency response to all emergencies.
Generally speaking, the program prompts schools to assemble preparedness teams, broken into four categories: a 911 team, a CPR team, an AED team and a HEAT STROKE team. The groups are made up of coaches and their students who will be in close proximity to all after-school activities.
“The reality about school sports is, at 3:30 every day the office closes and any type of medical support ceases to exist,” Redman said. “We then send thousands of students out to gyms, courts, fields and rinks to participate without systemic support for emergencies. This program puts into place that systemic support.”
Another stark reality is that the majority of schools in any state do not have full-time athletic trainers. Even for those fortunate enough to employ such personnel, it’s most likely the training “staff” consists of one person. That one body can only be in one place at one time, and on widespread school campuses the time it takes to get from one venue to another could be the difference between life and death.
“Athletic trainers can champion the program, but someone needs to oversee that every coach has a completed EAP in place,” Redman said. “For every minute that goes by when a cardiac arrest occurs, chance for survival decreases by 10 percent.”
Thus, it’s imperative to train and grant responsibility to as many people as possible, including student-athletes. In fact, students are a vital component to having a successful EAP. Students will be put in position to call 911, to meet the ambulance at a pre-determined access point, to locate the nearest AED, to make sure emersion tubs are filled for hot-weather practices, and for those who are trained, to assist with CPR. Coaches will identify students at the beginning of the season and prior to an emergency taking place. They will provide them with the details of the job they are assigned so they will be ready to assist in the event of an emergency.
“We have game plans for every sport, and for every opponent on our schedule,” Redman said. “But we don’t have a plan to save the life of a member of our team or someone attending a game at our school.
“This is about developing a quick and coordinated response to every emergency so we give someone in trouble a chance at survival, and then practicing it once or twice a season. We have ‘drop the dummy’ drills where we drop a dummy and evaluate how it went, and how everyone performed. In one scenario, it’s the coach that goes down, and then you have a group of 15- or 16-year-olds standing there. That’s why students have to take ownership of this, too.”
The key to an effective emergency action plan is to utilize and empower students in every sport and at every level to be a part of the response team. Following are brief descriptions of the teams.
The 911 Team
- Two students will call 911 from a pre-determined phone and provide the dispatcher with the location and details of the emergency.
- Two students will meet the ambulance at a pre-determined access point and take them to the victim.
- Two students will call the athletic trainer, if one is available, and the athletic administrator and alert them to the emergency.
The CPR Team
- The coach is the lead responder on this team and is responsible for attending to the victim and administering CPR, if necessary, until trained medical personnel arrive.
- One person is capable of providing effective CPR for approximately two minutes before the quality begins to diminish. Having several students trained and ready to administer CPR will save lives.
The AED Team
- Two students will retrieve the AED and take it to the victim.
- Two students will physically locate the athletic trainer, if one is available, and take him or her to the victim.
The Heat Stroke Team
- Two students identify locations of emersion tub, water source, ice source and ice towels.
- Two students prepare tub daily for practices and events.
For more information, visit anyonecansavealife.org or contact the MSHSL.
1st Day of Practice Begins Final Run for Father & Son Ostipow at Forest Hills Northern
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 12, 2026
GRAND RAPIDS – For one obvious reason, no player on the Forest Hills Northern football team has received more wake-up calls from the head coach over his lifetime than Owen Ostipow.
But the one he and a handful of his teammates received about 4 p.m. Monday may prove memorable – especially if it ends up setting the tone for a successful fall.
The first practice of this season was set to begin at 3:45 p.m. That’s when Ostipow and others arrived, thinking they were early. That not being the case, and a few conversations over the confusion later, the Huskies headed to the goal line where varsity head coach Eddie Ostipow – Owen’s dad – opened what was to be his final first day of practice, at least for a while, by sending his team through push-ups and sprints as a reminder to sharpen up immediately for the work to come.
“Definitely a wake-up call for some of us to just get in line and get order. A lot of the guys were a little late today, me included,” Owen Ostipow said. “Absolutely deserved.”
Most likely, that brief bumpy start will end up as little more than a sidenote as Coach/Dad and his senior all-state candidate son/quarterback ride together through one more season, Owen before heading off to play at Ferris State and Eddie on the way to retiring after 27 years as a head coach in the West Michigan and Greater Lansing areas.
A total of 602 varsity football teams were scheduled to begin practices Monday, as were teams playing every fall sport at every MHSAA member school.
At Forest Hills Northern, that meant the beginning of the end of a recent era.
Eddie Ostipow will be retiring as head coach after this fall and from teaching later this school year, providing more time to watch his oldest son Evan’s football games at Hope College and next season Owen’s as he has committed to sign with the two-time reigning Division II national champion Bulldogs.
Of course, Owen nor Evan nor younger siter Auden were even on the radar when Eddie began his varsity coaching career at Charlotte as a 24-year-old in 1999 and led the Orioles to a combined 47-17 record over six seasons and the Division 3 Semifinals in 2004. He left after that season to coach three at East Kentwood, then returned to Charlotte for five more seasons before taking over at Ada Forest Hills Eastern and building the Hawks toward an 11-2 record and Division 4 Semifinal run in 2015 that remains that program’s most successful finish.
Ostipow moved on to coach Greenville from 2016-18, then took over at Forest Hills Northern in 2019. He enters this fall with a combined record of 116-112 while frequently matching up at his various stops with statewide powers like DeWitt early on, later Rockford and Muskegon, then Grand Rapids West Catholic and these days Muskegon, Mona Shores and Byron Center all during Ottawa-Kent Conference Green play.
On Monday, about 70 players took to FHN’s stadium turf to get things underway, including 45 varsity players. The Huskies are coming off two straight 4-5 finishes, last year after losing 14 players to injuries – including nearly half of those for the season – during the first half on opening night.
But they also return an all-region quarterback in Owen Ostipow, who ran for 1,435 yards and 22 touchdowns last season and threw for eight more scores. And that’s a great way to start anew.
“We’ve got an opportunity. We have a chance to surprise some people,” Eddie Ostipow said. “I like being the underdog sometimes too, so I think that makes it exciting. If you can get your kids to buy into that, I think that’s something that can be really powerful.
“My thing as a coach, I always try to have a perspective of what’s possible for us and then push them like crazy to get there. If we can get every ounce of effort and intensity and focus out of them, then I think we’ve had a great year.”
Of course, as life roles change, perspectives can evolve as well. Ostipow has gone from teaching and coaching kids who were less than a decade younger to turning 52 years old with Evan graduated, Owen on the way and Auden heading into her sophomore year.
His football staff at FHN is a collection of coaches who were part of the program before him and others who were with him at some of his other stops. None go back to his days at Charlotte, but athletic director can – he was an all-state receiver for the Orioles under Ostipow before graduating in 2005. Sherman then played at Northern Michigan, came home to coach with Ostipow at Charlotte and again at Forest Hills Eastern, and he inherited his old coach in taking over at FHN in 2024.
“Coaching, he lives it, probably a bit more than he should. But that’s the hobby,” Sherman said. “His passion, he’s always working on something – he always has some nuance or change, something new he’s trying to learn.
“I joke sometimes, when you have kids sometimes you soften up a little bit, but he’s not soft. We’re going to have expectations (this season), we’re going to have all those things. But as you go through it, and then you become a parent, you sometimes see that lens a little different.”
As a now-veteran coach as well, Ostipow has had opportunities to cheer on former players who have gone on to major accomplishments.
In January, his former quarterback Trinidad Chambliss nearly took Ole Miss past Miami at the Fiesta Bowl, just missing out on a chance to play in the College Football Playoff title game. On the opposite sideline celebrating that 31-27 Hurricanes win was Jack Clark, a member of the Miami staff who starred for Ostipow at Forest Hills Eastern and owns a national championship ring after serving on Michigan’s staff during its 2024 run. Another 2005 Charlotte graduate, Chad Richardson, has a Super Bowl ring from serving as director of game presentation for the Los Angeles Rams during their 2022 surge, and he’s now with the Buffalo Bills in the same capacity as they prepare to open a new stadium. Matt Packowski was a junior on that 2004 Orioles team and now is a Division I college football referee.
There surely will be more to come, and Ostipow did not sound Monday like a coach on his way out. But he’ll do his best to be fan for a while and cheer on the Huskies who came through his household as well before possibly making a return to the sideline when their playing days are done.
“I feel like it’s kinda special. Most people don’t get to get coached by their dad, and I think it’s a little more extra special because I remember when my brother was a senior, and I started on varsity as a sophomore, that was the first time I’d seen (my dad) cry,” Owen Ostipow said. “It was just kinda heartbreaking. You watch (your kids) grow, and then they’re just gone.
“Now it’s going to be me. Maybe we’ll see that again from him, but you never know.”
PHOTOS (Top) Forest Hills Northern coach Eddie Ostipow, far left, watches his senior son Owen (white helmet cap) run the offense during Monday’s first practice of the season. (Middle) Owen Ostipow, far right, runs sprints on the track with his teammates. (Below) Eddie Ostipow works with the Huskies linemen.