High school steroid testing worth the cost, By: Chris Greene

Published March 16, 2007

Success in professional sports these days almost always is questioned.

The next unbelievable performance in the Tour de France? There will be reason to doubt it. And when the next major-leaguer blasts 70-plus home runs? There’ll be questions then, too.

But what about when a high school athlete rushes for 4,000 yards in a 10-game season, or a track athlete breaks a state record in the shot put? Is it time to begin questioning achievements at the prep level?

We’d hope not. We’d hope that at the high school level there still is a sense of innocence in the games we love to watch and in the athletes who love to play them.

We’d hope that high school records aren’t tarnished the way the use of performance-enhancing steroids tarnishes achievements at levels above.

But we can’t sweep the notion under the rug. Not when our teenagers look up to the pros tangled in a web of investigations where some most certainly are guilty of “juicing” their bodies to perform at a higher level.

A bill filed last week in the Texas Senate and authored by State Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, to mandate steroid testing for high school athletes has the backing of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus.

Senate Bill 8 would require 3 percent of students be tested annually for the drug in high schools chosen by the University Interscholastic League, the state’s governing body of high school sports. If signed into law, testing could begin in the fall.

High school students who want to play sports would be required to agree not to use steroids and, if chosen, must submit to testing by a certified lab. Like drug testing at the college and professional levels, a urine sample collected would be split in two. If a test on the first sample came back positive, the second sample would be tested to confirm the result.

If approved, the bill leaves most of the testing details, such as which schools are selected, how and when samples are collected and punishment for positive results, to the UIL.

A written reprimand, a probation period in which the student is allowed to play and a maximum three-year suspension are among the options within the bill’s mandates, however, and Dewhurst said punishments for positive tests should include a ban from playing sports.

It’s a harsh stance, but studies show it a necessary one.

Dewhurst points to findings he says show 1 million high school students nationwide have taken steroids, as many as 40,000 in Texas.

Testing of high school athletes hasn’t been met by resistance from a health standpoint, but many school officials are concerned about costs.

The plan calls for the state to pay up to $4 million per year for testing and estimates have put the cost as high as $200 per test. Dewhurst said the state might be able to get tests cheaper, for perhaps about $100 each.

While we would support the measure of testing high school athletes for steroids, there really needs to be a crystal clear explanation of punishments and precise costs before it is signed into law.

Texans should understand, though, that there will be a high price for testing our youths.

The price of not testing could be much higher.

This editorial was written by Chris Greene, sports editor of The Facts.