Locally, coaches and players in Battle Creek say steroids are virtually a non-issue. Football and track and field, sports that require muscle mass and speed, have long been the places where steroids are prevalent.
But not around here, according to Battle Creek Central boys track and field coach Larry Caper.
“In my years at Battle Creek Central, I have never seen it and kids never talk about it,” Caper said. “At the high school level, I don’t think (it goes on). You can tell by the performance of an athlete, from year to year, if times get extremely fast. You know what’s going on.”
Wow. You would think that most high school coaches would acknowledge that some high school athletes are unfortunately using anabolic steroids. While it may not be a public health crisis, the use of steroids by teenagers is a problem. Such naivete should be sufficient reason to disqualify anyone from coaching high school sports.
In an investigation that has identified about 100 suspected steroid users and 15 dealers in the county, 10 people have been arrested, including two former high school football players, the sheriff said. He added that of those 100 suspected users, as many as 20 were high school athletes. That number stunned educators and law enforcement officials who had considered performance-enhancing drugs to be more of a big-city problem.
“I think there’s more steroid use, after talking to my investigators, in sports activities than originally thought,” said Bobby J. Guidroz, the sheriff of St. Landry Parish, population 90,000, about two hours west-northwest of New Orleans.
The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office announced a major steroid bust in Louisiana today. A seven month undercover investigation into anabolic steroid distribution at local gyms uncovered a network of 15 steroid dealers and identified at least 100 customers including several St. Parish area high school football players. The Sheriff’s Office has arrested four individuals on steroid distribution charges and has not ruled out pressing steroid possession charges against some of the customers (”Authorities say high school football players being investigated in steroid ring,” July 22).
Neither the football players or the high schools they attend were named by St. Landry Sheriff’s officials in a news conference today.
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