Don't expect PIAA to adopt steroid testing, By: Jennifer Wielgus
June 16, 2006
New Jersey tackled the hottest issue in sports last week when it enacted the nation's first statewide steroids-testing program for high school athletics.
That bold move has put a sort of peer pressure on neighboring Pennsylvania.
“When things like that happen, there's no question, it certainly piques the interest of other state associations,” said Melissa Mertz, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. “Certainly, it raises our eyebrows and makes us say, "OK, let's get ahead of this.' ”
But Mertz said the PIAA wants to tackle the steroids issue through education, not testing.
Unlike the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association — whose new policy calls for random testing of high school athletes who have qualified for state championships, beginning next fall — the PIAA believes steroid use can be prevented with the right information.
Mertz said PIAA officials recently met with a private company, called “STAR Sportsmanship,” to begin developing an educational training program for schools. The program would “impress on the young student-athletes how incredibly dangerous it is to even toy with steroids,” Mertz said.
“The belief behind it is, you've got to change the behavior,” she said. “It's one thing if a kid gets caught once, twice, here or there. But until you change their behavior or their thinking about what it is they're doing, you're probably not going to be very successful in getting them to change for life.”
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, about 6 percent of U.S. high school students took steroids in 2003 without a prescription from a doctor. In a 2005 study conducted by the National Institute for Drug Abuse, 2.6 percent of high school seniors reported using steroids at least once in their lifetimes.
In 2003, the National Federation of State High School Associations reported that 13 percent of the nation's high schools had implemented some form of drug testing for students and student-athletes — but of those that did, only 29 percent tested for steroids.
The Courier Times performed an informal survey of Lower Bucks County High Schools in April 2005. None of the 11 responding schools said they tested for steroids.
A change does not appear likely in the near future.
“I don't hear a cry for action at the AD, coaching or even parent level,” said Council Rock-South athletics director John Nodecker. “I think many of us are watching how this plays out in New Jersey. If, through testing, they find that there turns out to be a great number of students found to be using, then obviously we need to study our situation even more seriously.”
Under New Jersey's program, athletes and their parent or guardian will have to sign a form consenting to random testing in order to be eligible to participate in any NJSIAA state-level competition. Testing would be conducted once a postseason tournament begins, at a tournament site.
Athletes who test positive for a banned substance would face a one-year loss of eligibility.
Neshaminy football coach Mark Schmidt sees one major roadblock to steroids testing in Pennsylvania.
“It's an interesting situation, but I wonder about the cost,” Schmidt said. “How much is it going to cost a person? That's a lot of expenses if you start testing a lot of kids. So, we'll see what happens.”
New Jersey cleared the cost hurdle, thanks to Sen. Richard J. Codey, who pushed the NJSIAA to develop a steroid-testing policy last December in his final days as acting governor. Codey has said the state would provide $50,000 to help cover the cost of testing, an amount the NJSIAA said it would match.
Even if the PIAA could round up those funds, Mertz said, there's no guarantee it would jump to implement a testing program and scrap its emphasis on education.
“We think we're doing a good job,” Mertz said. “Do we think it's perfect? Probably not, by any means. But we definitely believe in changing the way the kids think about it and their behavior. We feel that's the best approach.”
