Take an Hour; Save a Life

Sept. 1, 2009

On Sunday, Aug. 23, James Washington collapsed and died of a heart attack at the SSUSA Qualifier in Chino Hills, Calif.

One of the first comments to hit the messageboard was that players thought SSUSA provided defibrillators at all senior tournaments. For the past three years, SSUSA has been steadily buying defibrillators – with the help of donors – and now provides them at all 20 championship level tournaments.

SSUSA has not been able to provide the defibrillators at all of the 40 other SSUSA Qualifiers. However, after the incident at Chino Hills and the tragic loss for James Washington’s family, SSUSA is making a promise: we will ship defibrillators to ALL Senior Softball-USA Qualifiers beginning next year. We also will require our tournament directors to be certified in its use.

More importantly, we are issuing a challenge to all senior teams: We need you to designate at least one member of your team to be trained in CPR and operation of the defibrillators.

For the past three years, SSUSA has been running FREE clinics open to all players and managers at major tournaments. We usually get fewer than 10 people to attend, and most of those are SSUSA officials who must be recertified every year.

Please, please, please take an hour to learn how to save a life. It works. SSUSA officials have saved four lives in the past three years because of this training. The next sessions will be at the World Championships in Phoenix (See page s 14-15 for details).

It is easy, it is free – and it will save lives. Do it for a friend, do it for a teammate.