Coaches Guide to Nutrition: Supplements

Did you know that dietary supplements are not regulated by the government?  

Milk Means More logoEncourage your athletes to utilize food as their first option rather than a supplement.

If your athlete decides to utilize supplements, encourage them to look for supplements with a “USP Verified,” “Informed Sport,” or “NSF Certified Sport” seal.

For athletes, it’s important to note that some supplements (or ingredients in supplements) are banned. This includes some energy drinks; encourage your athletes to utilize supplements with extreme caution.   

Supplements are intended to supplement or add to the diet – not act as a substitute for food. Supplements can include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, probiotics or herbs.      

Information above is excerpted from UDIM’s A Coach’s Guide to Nutrition.

Troy Athens' Winning Work Promotes Importance of Becoming MI HEARTSafe

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

July 22, 2022

Troy Athens, and more specifically its girls soccer team, has been selected as this year’s winner of the MI HEARTSafe School Video Contest promoting the importance of Michigan schools becoming an MI HEARTSafe school.

The Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation partners with the MHSAA to promote cardiac awareness – and Athens’ student-produced video (above) earned the school $5,000.

Michigan has lost at least 81 students to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and related causes since 1999, according to data compiled by the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation. Randy and Sue Gillary lost their daughter Kimberly to a cardiac arrest in a high school water polo game in April of 2000. Randy and Sue Gillary founded the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable foundation within days of losing Kimberly. The mission of the Foundation is to donate automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to Michigan high schools and to advocate cardiac screening and testing of Michigan high school student athletes.

A major drive of the foundation is for every Michigan school to become an MI-HEARTSafe School. This is a designation given by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHSS) when a school has met the criteria to demonstrate it is prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency on school property. Schools receive a banner and other materials that can be displayed in the school to let those who attend and visit know that the school is an MI-HEARTSafe School.