Permian High football coach honored for saving choking player’s life

Permian High School Coach Mike Bettenhausen received a standing ovation at Tuesday night’s Ector County ISD school board meeting for his heroic actions last month when he saved the life of a player who was choking on a plastic bottle cap.

The incident occurred at a freshman football game in Midland in September, according to the school district. Coach Bettenhausen was working on the sideline when he noticed a student was choking. He ran to the student, performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged the bottle cap that the student had accidentally swallowed.

Bettenhausen was recognized as a coach who displays the “courage to jump in, not just to change lives through their daily work, but to save one as well.”