Steroid use in High School Sports

Prep steroid testing okayed
The pilot program will begin in July for three sports: wrestling, football and baseball.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published May 2, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - High school wrestlers, football players and baseball players would be subject to random testing for anabolic steroids starting next school year, under a one-year pilot program embraced by lawmakers.

About 1 percent of high school athletes in those three sports would be tested randomly over the course of the year, beginning in July. Students who test positive would be suspended from athletics for 90 days, when a follow-up test would be given. They would not face criminal charges and their academic standing would not be affected.

The House unanimously approved the program for public and private school athletes Monday, and the Senate approved it Tuesday.

Final passage of the legislation is expected today or Thursday, when the chambers vote on a late addition to the bill that would remove private school athletics from the Florida High School Athletic Association and create a second, separate governing body for private-school programs and athletes.

It's not clear whether Gov. Charlie Crist supports the legislation.

Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami, has tried for four years to get the steroid testing approved.

"We have to create a deterrent so that young high school students do not take these steroids," said Llorente, a lawyer and former three-sport high school athlete. "And hopefully we can expand it in the future. This is very important."

Llorente's push reflects local, state and national concerns that steroid use in professional sports has trickled down to colleges and high schools.

"It's not normal to gain 40 pounds over the summer," said Jamie Joyner, head coach at Brooksville's Nature Coast Technical High School. He said he hasn't seen evidence of steroid use at his current job, but recalled a few cases that gave him pause when he was a former assistant coach in Pinellas County.

"You just see kids that blow up in a very short period of time," Joyner said. "You've been coaching for a while, it makes you wonder what they are doing."

According to a 2004 state study, about 19,350 Florida students reported having used steroids. That represents about 1.4 percent of the population. Of those, 5,600 said they had taken steroids within the past month.

That compares to 2 percent of students in the United States that use steroids regularly, with high school seniors reporting the highest use.

At the time of the 2004 study, 11 Florida school districts already tested their athletes for drugs, though not for steroids. Polk County added steroid testing in 2005 to its athlete drug testing.

Karrmayne King, the girls basketball coach and athletic director at Keswick Christian School in St. Petersburg, said recent steroid scandals in sports like track and field accentuate the need for testing at the high school level.

"To get things cleaned up at the upper levels, you need to start at this level," King said.

The legislation currently states that the pilot would be administered by the FHSAA. But on Tuesday, Sen. Daniel Webster tacked an amendment onto the bill that would create the Florida Private School Athletic Association to oversee athletics in private schools.

Currently, private schools are governed by the FHSAA, just like public schools.

Lawmakers said later that any private-school governing body would be subject to the same rules and standards as the FHSAA. So the steroid testing would apply to private-school athletes, too.

Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville, who supports the proposed athletic association for private schools, said lawmakers will probably have to tweak the language of the bill to make that intent clear.

FHSAA commisioner John Stewart on Tuesday called the steroid testing "a good thing," though he does not support a second body to oversee private schools.

According to the rules of the pilot, schools would send the names of all athletes in football, wrestling and baseball to the FHSAA or, for private schools, likely the new governing body.

The FHSAA would forward those names to an accredited testing agency. The agency would then randomly select names from that group, up to 1 percent of the total athletes, for testing.

To compete in the three sports, high school athletes would have to sign forms consenting to the tests.

All records of tests and student names would be exempt from the state's public records laws, according to related legislation that cleared the House and Senate this week.

Any student who tests positive would be suspended from practice and games for 90 days and could not return until a subsequent test comes back clean. Those athletes also would have to go through a drug education program and would have to take regular tests for the duration of their high school athletic careers.

Athletes can appeal the results, which would be maintained separate from a student's academic record.

The FHSAA would provide the Legislature with a report on the steroid test results by October of 2008.

Coach Sean Callahan, whose Armwood football team won state titles in 2003 and 2004, said he is in favor of the testing.

"We're all for anything that's for the betterment and health of these kids."

Times researcher Cathy Wos and staff writers Joey Knight and David Murphy contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at [email protected] or (850) 224-7263.

Fast Facts:

Steroids

-Some of the most common anabolic steroids taken today are Anadrol, Oxandrin, Durabolin, Depo-Testosterone and Equipoise.

-Anabolic steroids typically are injected, swallowed or applied to the skin like a cream or gel.

- Side effects include liver cysts and cancer, kidney cancer, hostility and aggression and acne.

- Males can experience reduced sperm production, shrunken testicles and breast enlargement.

- Females typically develop beards and other masculine traits, and their periods become irregular or stop altogether.

_______________________________

Discuss. Also, I have no comment.

 

Steroids are for lazy people who cant work out normally. It disgusts me. I think about 90% of the guys in my former highschool's football team use creatine, which is still a sort of less intense steroids.

 

Creatine is in NO way a less intense steroid. It does not increase testosterone production. It fills your muscles with water, making them expand more, that way when you work out, they retain that. The worst thing creatine can do is dehydrate you. I take creatine on a daily basis.

 

All I have to say is, coming from a Division 1 Ohio highschool, it's apparent that almost every athlete has been involved with, or consumed, some type of steroid or illegal supplement, (illegal in the sense of OHSAA rules and stipulations),.

By this statement, we can derive that often times athletes are peer pressured into the substance abuse, or do it simply to compete at a higher peak.

The bottom line is, the side effects down the road are simply gargantuan compared to the temporary gain a highschool level. Looking back at highschool years, athletes will regret the abuse and the effects it has caused both physically, and sexually. Hormones are not made to be tampered with, so leave them alone and take clean supplements, i.e. creatine, protein, and natural products.

 

I don't see why they don't work out if they want to perform better.

 

Because the use of performance enhancing drugs effectively does the "working out" for them. It is an easier, time efficient alternative to busting a sweat in the gym and such.

 

but is it worth getting a disease like cancer by taking steroids? i just think people who take steroids are stupid , nothing else.

 

What about the side effects? Is it really worth it?

 

Creatine is in no way any type of steroid.

 

I know people that have lifted their whole lives. And years later they finally find steroids. Its not that theyre lazy, they are hard workers and will beat the sh*t out of you with or without steroids. Its just a nice boost.

 

Most people do work out while taking steroids. It forces their body to produce more testosterone, therefore making them have more gains in the gym. Anyone who doesn't work out while taking any performance enhancing supplement, whether it be legal, or illegal, is just stupid.

I'll openly say that I have tried steroids to get ahead. It's a fast train to get on, then really hard to get off. Helped alot in wrestling.

 

I honestly find steroid use in any type of competition pathetic, and cheap.

 

i completely agree. steroids are for lazy people. also creatine is very good. its actually a naturally occuring substance in our bodies. it is a great way to get past plateaus or to have a more intense workout.

 

I'm here as a natural teen bodybuilder, OCB pro, and future INBF PQ, to defend the use of steroids. Most people are mislead about the uses of steroids, they believe you can stack up on test, a-drol50, not even PCT, and get huge. They think a proper diet isn't necessary, and that you don't have to work out. Do you honestly believe injecting a-drol50, e-drol, d-bol, etc. and sitting at home eating like a slob will get you to look like Dorian Yates, or Ronnie Coleman? I don't think so...

You'll gain some muscle, yes....Under LOADS of FAT! Bodybuilders, football players, baseball players on AAS put HEAVY dues into the gym, into their diet, and sleep. Or they would look like complete shit. It's not for lazy people who can't workout, it's for people who take their damn job seriously.
And btw, for the idiots above, creatine is not a steroid >.>..

As Jay Cutler once said (Current Mr.Olympia winner, and a few times running).
"Everybody cheats, i'm just better at it."

Also, for those who no NOTHING about steroid use (which I assume most of this thread) please, go watch bigger, stronger, faster on YouTube.

 

I have to agree with the above, steroids sometimes can mean you need to put more work into it to get the result you want because it's not as easy as inject & size, it helps growth but if you don't do it properly it's a bigger fuck-up then if you didn't do them at all .

 

ok honestly, the majority of the people posting on here have no clue what steroids do for you. Like the person above said, steroids dont just give you muscle, they increase the amount of testosterone that is prodouced which allows your muscles to rebuild faster and stronger after a hard workout. Every time you workout what happens is your muscles microscopicly tear and then rebuild themselves over, but gradually larger and steroids just increase the speed, and amount they rebuild. It allows athletes to work out harder and longer, and see better results.

 

Take rabies like BMS so that you don't get detected

But, I personally use Creatine and a few other things from GNC for Football and Baseball. I would never stick a needle in myself for any means.

 

fuck, really? I think they should just separate everyone. Have the non-steroid users in one team, and have a whole separate league for the steroid users. That way, those that wanna see a regular sports game can. Those that want to get jacked up on steroids can have their fun too. And I can have fun watching some huge mother fucker knock a baseball about 5 miles.

 

You don't know what your talking about. You don't magically get huge taking steroids.. People who take steroids still need to work out. Most people that take steroids are bodybuilders who have been training seriously for years and need the extra push to get them to the next level. I don't see how you justify someone who takes steroids as lazy. A cheater, perhaps.. but not lazy.

 

Steroids are artificial hormones made in the human body e.g. testosterone
Creatine is a natural substance that is created in the liver, not a steroid.
When taking steroids, you dont get big by doing nothing. And no, steroids takers are not lazy, if anything they work extra hard that natural bodybuilders or other sort of athletes.