Emergency Action Plans, AEDs Essential for Upcoming Events in High School Sports, Performing Arts

While temperatures are beginning to cool down across the country, the world of high school sports and activities is warming up. Late October marks the beginning of one of the most exciting times of the year as postseason competition starts in fall sports and preparations begin for the winter sports of basketball, wrestling, ice hockey and others. 

Although much time is spent devising game plans to achieve success on the fields, courts and stage, this is a crucial time to ensure that schools are ready to handle unexpected emergencies when things don’t go exactly as planned. With millions of students involved in sports and other activities in the coming months, the focus must be on AEDs and EAPs for coaches, administrators, athletic trainers and other school leaders.

Time after time over the past few years, there have been situations where the use of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) as a part of an EAP (Emergency Action Plan) has saved the lives of players, coaches and officials. Being prepared for an emergency is probably the most important task for leaders in high school athletics programs.

The first step is to establish an EAP for each venue that hosts events involving students, staff and spectators – and not just for athletics. The school’s auditorium used for speech, music and theatre programs also should have a detailed EAP. This is not just a good idea – it is a vital professional and legal responsibility of all schools.

The EAP should include step-by-step procedures to follow in an emergency – and who is responsible for each task. Items such as who contacts emergency personnel, who is responsible for getting the AED or other emergency equipment, who will accompany a student to the hospital if needed and who will contact a student’s parents, having trained personnel onsite, and an understanding of how to deal with specific issues such as cardiac arrest, heat stroke, neck injuries and lightning.

If you do not currently have an EAP for your school’s venues, the NFHS offers several resources through its Learning Center, including CPR & AED Training, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Emergency Action Planning for Afterschool Programs and The Collapsed Student. In addition, another resource for emergency planning is the Anyone Can Save a Life program.

While establishing an EAP is a significant first step, regular training and rehearsing of the plan is essential. Everyone involved in the EAP must know their part and be able to perform their responsibilities with no hesitation when the call comes.

Karl Weening, M.D., a former member of the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, outlined three basic steps for implementation of an EAP in a recent issue of High School Today:

1.     A venue-specific EAP must be written and posted to communicate a clear response mechanism and allow for continuity among emergency team members.

2.     All members of the emergency team should be educated on the EAP and know their specific roles. Training should include activation of emergency services, recognition of sudden cardiac arrest with CPR and AED practice, cooling techniques in situations involving heat stroke, and management of head and neck injuries. 

3.     The EAP should be reviewed and rehearsed regularly.

To ensure that the EAP is fully understood by everyone, it should be reviewed briefly on site before a contest by the covering medical team, which could include the athletic trainer, athletic director, officials, emergency medical services personnel and event administrator. Referred to as a medical timeout, this important meeting would review AED locations and make sure that everyone knows their assignments in the event of an emergency.

Fortunately, AEDs are becoming more prevalent in schools nationwide because it is a fact that AEDs – in concert with CPR and implementation of a previously designed EAP – can save a person’s life. However, schools should have multiple units, and one should be in high-traffic areas and near athletic competition to improve the chances of survival.

And the person responsible for retrieving the AED and the individual who will be activating the unit MUST know exactly how to respond. According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA), if a SCA victim receives defibrillation through an AED within the first minute, there is a 90 percent chance of survival. When used in the first five minutes, AEDs offer a survival rate of 30-50 percent.

For every minute that passes without defibrillation, chances of survival decrease by seven to ten percent, according to the SCAA. The limited window of timing makes it essential to have both an AED device easily accessible and one or more fully trained operators present to quickly administer the defibrillation.

Before every game at your school, leaders must be able to answer these questions: Is there an AED available in close proximity to the event, and will trained individuals be on hand in the case of an emergency? Is there an EAP in place for this event, and have all individuals prepared and rehearsed their tasks?

With millions of students involved in sports and other activity programs the next few months, a focus on health and safety is paramount. Thanks to everyone involved in these vital programs in our nation’s schools.   

Republishing Notice: This article may be republished by media outlets. If republished, please credit Davis Whitfield as the author and The NFHS Report as the original source.

Davis Whitfield began his tenure on August 1, 2026, as executive director of the NFHS, the national leader and advocate for high school sports and performing arts programs based in Indianapolis. He was chief operating officer of the NFHS for 11 years prior to his promotion to the executive director position. Prior to joining the NFHS staff in 2015, Whitfield was commissioner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) for five years. He began his career in sports administration in 1995 at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, where he was assistant athletic director for operations and facilities for three years. He then served in the athletic department at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, including two years as director of operations and facilities management and two years as assistant athletic director for operations and facilities. Prior to joining the NCHSAA staff, Whitfield was on the administrative staff of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for 7½ years, including the final 2½ years as associate commissioner.