COORDINATING FROM THE CORNER Inside of the trainer’s room, Greenhills’ Health Service Coordinator Christine Gajar works to make sure that all Greenhills staff are ready in case of emergency. “When we hire coaches or when we’re onboarding coaches, we’ll ask for their [training] certificates,” said Gajar, “if they don’t have them, then we’ll provide that training.”

For Greenhills coaches, safety is front of mind. Frightening injuries make headlines on a national scale, like when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered his fourth concussion since 2019 in September, or when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered life-threatening cardiac arrest after a hit to his chest in Jan. 2023. With these types of injuries also possible at Greenhills sports practices, games, and meets, requirements have been put in place to make sure that medical aid can be received by those who need it as soon as possible.

 For the 2025-2026 school year, changes have been made to these requirements to make playing a sport at Greenhills even safer than before. 

“The state of Michigan has new safety mandates for the ‘25-’26 school year,” said Christine Gajar. Gajar is the Health Services Coordinator at Greenhills. “All coaches are to be CPR certified, [and] AEDs need to be placed so that a shot can be delivered within three minutes of a code being called, so schools are going to have more AEDs within the building.”

The new regulations mandate that all coaches be CPR-certified and able to use an AED, but this is not a new mandate at Greenhills. 

“That’s been a requirement for many years that all Greenhills staff is CPR certified,” said Gajar. “But we’ll do a more complete and thorough job making sure that all coaches are CPR certified now [that] it’s a state mandate.”

Another change will be the addition of a new head athletic trainer. Sherrie Springer is filling in the role while a full-time replacement is found to replace outgoing trainer Meaghan Dreffs. 

“In the role here as an athletic trainer at the school, you try to do as much as you can with prevention,” said Springer. “Do we have enough water? Do we have ice? Do we have everything we need in case we have an injury?”

With all the risks associated with athletics, Springer says that risk prevention is a team effort that includes all of Greenhills, not just trainers and coaches.

“We practice with each team every season,” said Springer. “So that if something ever happened and say, I wasn’t there, if a coach had walked up to their car and something happened [and] it was only kids, [they] would know where to get started, who to call, where to get the AED.”

These procedures also extend outside Greenhills. When at other schools, the conditions are the same, due to the state requirements.

“Everybody has the same credentials,” said Springer. “The nice part is you expect that at another school too. So if we’re the visiting school, we know that we would have help there too.”

Boys tennis head coach Eric Gajar is one of those who works to make sure that all student-athletes are safe. In his role, he helps prepare his team on what to do in case of emergency.

“It’s called an emergency action plan,” said Gajar. “We have to know where the AEDs are. You assign different groups of people or different pairs of people to different tasks like call 911, find the trainer, go out and help the ambulance locate where they’re going.”

Even though the state requirements are in place, Greenhills works to make sure that their coaches are prepared for any emergency.

“The emergency action plan is state-mandated, league-mandated, and school-mandated,” said Gajar. “All three require that. Then the concussion protocol and first aid [training] is required for all coaches at Greenhills.”

With the recent attention, Gajar says that other safety aspects are under scrutiny.

“People have [become] more aware in the last couple of years about concussion protocol,” said Gajar. “If someone’s out, [knowing] what it takes for them to be eligible to come back in and compete. And then people have been a lot more cautious around heat.”

Boys soccer captain Etienne Rouillard ‘25 said he is reassured by the safety efforts. When he was a freshman, the precautions put in place were tested when there was a medical emergency during a soccer game.

“We had a very real experience with this,” Rouillard said. “We were playing against Huron when I was a freshman, and when our goalkeeper went up to catch a ball a Huron player underneath him made him fall from the air onto his neck and he started having a seizure.”

Even with the frightening circumstances, every player remembered the safety roles that had been given to them a few weeks earlier and instantly went into action.

“Instantly everyone knew their jobs,” said Rouillard. “We went to get the AED, open the gates, greet the ambulance, and those who knew how to provide CPR were there if needed. It was super organized and [when] the ambulance came, he ended up being fine, in large part due to the safety precautions that had been organized before.”

For Greenhills students and staff, it is extremely important that everyone knows their emergency position at all times. Rouillard says that the most important part is that no one panics and everyone follows their set roles.

“Even a few seconds can save a life,” said Rouillard. “So having set jobs is really important to make everything efficient in a situation when people might start freaking out. Knowing what to do can almost calm people, and save lives. So I’m glad Greenhills emphasizes this.”