SportsLetter

High school punished for warning athletes about drug test

A Houston high school was placed on two years’ probation by Texas’ University Interscholastic League (UIL) after informing athletes of an upcoming steroids test.  While technically a violation of state law, punishment for the infraction was left up to the UIL, which also gave Sterling High School a public reprimand.

The high school claimed it did not notify athletes ahead of the test in an effort to cheat but rather to ensure athletes were on campus to take the test.

From The Daily Journal:

Testing rules require the drug testing company to notify schools 24 to 48 hours before arriving on campus. Only a handful of school officials are supposed to know they are coming and they are forbidden from notifying students, who can be banned from competition if they test positive.

A student can also be considered as having a positive test if they skip the test or are absent the day the tests are conducted.

[Sterling interim principal Sam] Dominguez said Sterling officials worried that absent students would be punished, so they called their families to tell them the tests would be the next day.

Steroid traffickers and high school athletes

Thirty-two people from Ohio and Tennessee have been indicted in a drug trafficking investigation involving steroids from China, a steroids lab in Tennessee, gyms and YMCAs in Ohio and "concerns that some of the drugs were being dealt to high school athletes," according to Cincinnati.com.

From Cincinnati.com:

Local professional athletes – who haven’t been charged -- are being probed in a far-reaching Warren County drug investigation that busted a clandestine anabolic steroids lab in Tennessee and led to indictments of 32 people, authorities said Tuesday.

“There are at least two (professional athletes) we feel have an involvement in this operation,” said John Burke, commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force. “The investigation is ongoing and there may well be charges (against the athletes).”

Burke added that authorities had strong indication that high school students were also buying steroids but officials weren’t able to identify any of them. Officials didn’t name any schools.

Bob Cook, who writes a youth sports blog for Forbes, wrote of the bust,

It cost $25 to make each vial of steroids, but it was sold for $85 to $125 a vial — a tidy profit, no doubt. Although it brings to mind the question, where were high schoolers getting that kind of money?

They find a way. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the estimated rate of U.S. high schoolers admitting past or present use of steroids has grown from 1 in 45 in 1993 to 1 in 16 in 2005, and there are no indications the rate is not continuing to increase. As of 2005, 6.8% of male high schoolers admitted steroid use, as did 5.3% of females. By the way, steroid use among high schoolers is not a U.S. problem only.

You might ask yourself, hey, haven’t these kids gotten the message that injecting yourself with steroids is illegal, that the muscle mass you get today is outweighted by the small sexual organs and back acne you’ll have tomorrow, and that someday someone is going to expose you as a falsely built, performance-enhancing drug freak?

Fortunately, there are some high school athletes who have gotten the message.  From Fox19.com:

"I've been in here lifting over the summer, and I heard some young guys were the ones picking them up. No one ever offered anything to me so I'm kind of shocked," said Joe Feldmann, a high school athlete.

Joe and his friend, Trent Fruhwirth, believe their coaches will use this major bust to teach a lesson.

"They will definitely talk to us about this about staying away from these kind of drugs. It will just ruin your career of ever playing sports," said Fruhwirth.

Four New Jersey HS athletes caught using steroids

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), the governing body for high school sports in the state, announced that four athletes tested positive for steroids during the 2010-11 school year, earning each athlete a one-year suspension.

Four positive tests is the most since the NJSIAA started testing for performance-enhancing drugs (PED) in the 2006-07 season, according to NorthJersey.com.  The NJSIAA receives $50,000 from the state and spends an additional $50,000 from its accounts for the testing program.

Said NJSIAA executive director Steve Timko, "it only reinforces the need for testing and how important it is to maintain this program. One [positive test] is too many."

Ocean City principal Matthew Jamison, the president of the executive committee, commented, "this just serves to show you how easily available steroids are to the high school athlete."

Steroid use by high school students topic of free webinar

On Wednesday, September 14, the American Sport Education Program (ASEP) is offering a free webinar on the issue of steroid use amongst high school students and athletes.

Called "Performance Enhancing Drugs: They're More Available, Popular, and Dangerous Than You Think," the webinar will be led by Don Hooten and will provide an opportunity to discuss steroid use by high school athletes "striving to improve athletic performance and secure college scholarships" and:

young men and women who aren't out to gain an athletic edge-they simply want to look like the "cut" models, musicians, movie stars, and athletes they see glorified in the media. The Internet makes it easy for anyone to buy steroids, and they're available in almost every local gym.

To participate, sign up here:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/690376712?associate=2226

Results of steroid testing in high schools

Are youth athletes using steroids or not?  An article in today's Chicago Tribune reports conflicting information from those involved in finding out.

Through three years of random testing for steroids in the high schools the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) had just two positive results in 1,478 tests, according to the Tribune.  At the same time a national survey from the University of Michigan, counting both athletes and non-athletes, claims that "steroid use among teens rose in 2010." From the Tribune:

The [University of Michigan] survey of approximately 50,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders showed 4 percent of male high school seniors said they used steroids in 2010 — up from 3.4 percent in 2009 and the highest number since 2004.

Chicago Bear Hall-of-Famer Dick Butkus has an organization called Play Clean which encourages young athletes to avoid doping and, well, play clean.  After pointing out that the U of Michigan "survey relies on self-reporting,” Dick Butkus has said he believes the use rates actually are higher.  According to Ron Arp, president of the Butkus Foundation,

"Most tests are through urine and not blood, so you don't know how thorough they are. The major pro leagues and even the world doping agencies are constantly trying to find tests for things being used. We are chasing things that are designed by their very nature to be elusive."

Still, Arp says,

"I do think it is fantastic that some states are testing. It is a natural deterrent for people on the bubble if they know their career or eligibility could come crashing down."

Testing for steroids in Texas high schools likely to continue

Steroid testing in Texas high schools has survived the budget axe, the Associated Press (AP) reports.  Texas likely will spend about $1.5 million over the next two years but the final tag will not be determined until lawmakers vote on the 2012-13 budget later this week.

The program was created in 2008 with a budget of $6 million for one of the nation's most comprehensive high school testing programs.  From an AP article in the Houston Chronicle:

Every one of the state’s 700,000-plus public school athletes — from freshmen female tennis players to senior offensive linemen in football — [was] eligible to be randomly selected, pulled from class and required to submit a urine sample.

According to the article, the revamped budget probably will focus on just a few sports, with football, baseball and track the likely targets.

Don't be an asterisk: a new video from The Ad Council

Watch the humorous rise and fall of the next great high school athlete in "Great High School Athletes.*"  The video is the latest public service announcement in the Play Asterisk Free anti-steroids campaign created by The Ad Council and The United States Olympic Committee. 

From The Ad Council's website:

The use of performance-enhancing substances is of primary concern in American sport. No segment of sport – from professional to youth – is immune to this problem. With increasing media coverage on steroid use in sports, teen usage has become a matter of greater consequence.  Not only are steroids a potential health hazard, they raise many ethical implications. In order to prevent teens from using steroids without increasing consideration, this campaign is designed to make steroids socially unacceptable.

Enjoy!

 

Drug testing in high schools

This past Monday the Pearl River County school board in Mississippi voted to place on its May 9 agenda "the discussion of adoption of a policy of drug testing athletes," according to the The Picayune Item.  No firm decision has been made on the topic, but the unanimous vote to "explore" the issue came as the local school board works to upgrade its school policies "using the Mississippi School Board Association’s (MSBA) model policies as a guide."

From the Picayune Item,

Board member Jeremy Weir, who made the motion that it be put on the agenda for discussion, said he has worked at two schools that had such a policy and said he believes Poplarville has a drug testing policy for athletes.

“It’s not a deal where you just cut a kid if he fails the drug test. The kid has to go to counseling. . .,” said Weir.

Dr. Clay said that the MSBA model policy provides for multiple testing of a student who fails a first test.

[School board attorney Jim] Keith told the board that the testing, if approved, would have to be done by an independent outside agency, not the school, and that procedures would have to be set up under which the program would operate.

No doubt the Pearl River County school board will investigate efforts by other Mississippi school districts to implement drug testing programs.  It also might want to take a look at the 2010 Fall Anabolic Steroid Testing Report released Thursday by Texas' University Interscholastic League.  The Amarillo Globe-News reports that "one of 2,083 Texas high school student athletes tested last fall was positive for anabolic steroids."

Other data released included:

Totals

Tests conducted: 2,083
Boys tested: 1,333
Girls tested: 750
Schools tested: 135
Sports tested: 21 (11 boys, 10 girls)
Freshmen tested: 649
Sophomores tested: 585
Juniors tested: 440
Seniors tested: 409
Positive tests: One

Former White House Drug Czar Robert Weiner on Barry Bonds, doping and youth sports

Robert Weiner, former spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the World Anti Doping Agency, will travel to the University of Massachusetts next Wednesday to deliver the Ken Feinberg Distinguished History Lecture on “Sports and Drugs—A Sordid History.” 

Calling drug testing in pro sports a "sham," Weiner plans to discuss the Barry Bonds verdict specifically and drug use in sports in general.

According to a press release,

Weiner said the issue is important because "polls show that youth pay attention to sports stars. Between 500,000 and a million youth use steroids annually.  When home run king Mark McGwire admitted using androstenodione, youth use of it quintupled.  When McGwire stopped using, his home run capacity plummeted from 70 to 30 and he dropped out of baseball. On steroids, kids have committed murders, other violent crimes, become schizophrenic, and committed suicide, as testified to by parents in Congress."

Youth sports volunteer indicted for conspiring to distribute steroids

A man active in youth sports in Bethel, Connecticut, was arrested Tuesday for his involvement in the running of an illegal steroids and marijuana ring that included high school students on a list of clients. 

According to the NewsTimes.com:

[Mark] Mansa was indicted Tuesday on federal charges in Federal District Court in Bridgeport along with three other men:

Glenn Wagner, of Brookfield, who had a prior drug arrest in 2007; Richard Sciaccetano, who federal officials believe has ties to the Bonnano crime family in New York; and Kevic Lubic, who investigators said Tuesday is associated with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in New Rochelle, N.Y.

...[Mansa] is charged with conspiracy to distribute steroids.

and

Mansa has been involved with local youth sports organizations, including Bethel Youth Football and the Bethel Youth Wrestling Club, with his son.

In August 2010, Mansa was the volunteer chairman for the Bethel Youth Football fundraiser commemorating American Youth Football Day.