High School football starts with added safety feature

Idaho Falls High School football players were among almost 200 runners in Friday’s Cady Tucker Run.

Organizer Pat Tucker said this year she is happy to announce that proceeds from the run will go toward automated external defibrillators for the high school and Rocky Mountain Middle School.

“AED’s are in most public buildings except for schools. We do not want our schools to be lagging the rest of our community and society,” she said. It’s critically important that we provide our children with the same protection that we have for other people.”

This will be the first time both schools have AED’s on hand. Idaho Falls High School head football coach Pete Molino said it isn’t often that players have any heart-related issues, but he wants to be prepared for any emergency on the field.

“As a parent I’m sending my kid to be with the coaches from four to five hours a day, every day of the week,” he said. “I want to rest assured that they’re able to handle any situations that comes up.”

Molino said players are pushed to their full capacity during practice. He said this helps players learn their limits. Which is why he said it’s important to know medical history and to be prepared for any surprises.

“When you deal with any contact sport you’re going to get injuries. But we do our best to make sure the players are in good physical shape during practice and before every game,” said Molino. “AED’s are just that one extra step of us being prepared.”

Tucker said it’s time to bring emergency action to the community and AED’s are just one step closer to a emergency prepared community.

“According to the American Heart Association, cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes,” said Tucker. “If CPR and AED are used the survival rate in the event of sudden cardiac arrest can be improved by as much as 78 percent. That translates nationally into 40,000 lives a year.

This is the 3rd annual Cady Tucker Run. Cady Tucker was killed in 2002 during a car accident involving a diabetic driver with uncontrolled blood sugar. Since then Pat Tucker has been involved with Mothers Against Impaired Drivers. This years run not only raised money for new AED’s, but educated the public on emergency action and procedure.