LISD ahead of the curve on steroid testing, By: Josh Havard

All Lufkin athletes who were involved in 2006-07 random checks tested negative

While many of the schools from across the state will begin steroid testing in the upcoming school year, Lufkin High School has already implemented its own program.

In addition to Lufkin High School's regular drug testing it had been doing over the previous 10 years, the school district added a steroid test before the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.

According to Lufkin athletic director John Outlaw, of the approximately 20 athletes that were randomly tested last year, all of the results came back negative. Due to the high cost of the tests, almost all schools will administer random tests.

"Mr. (Roy) Knight (Lufkin ISD's current superintendent) and Mr. (David) Sharp (former superintendent) wanted us to go ahead and start doing it," Outlaw said. "After some of the allegations against some of the kids at (other schools), we wanted to be ahead of the curve in getting this done, so that's what we did."

Mandatory random testing will start across Texas beginning with this school year, with the state putting some funding into the program. Texas will be one of only three states whose legislatures have mandated some kind of steroid testing for high school athletes.

However, Outlaw said that testing is unlikely to have much of an effect on Lufkin's steroid testing program.

"Quite honestly, I don't think they'll be doing any more testing than we've already been doing," Outlaw said. "But any money that we can get from the state when it comes to drug testing will be great."

Outlaw also said that he supported whatever steroid testing that could be done due to the fact that it will deter some high schoolers from the dangers of the drugs.

"What it does is, it puts a fear into the kids that they could get caught," Outlaw said. "If they've got that chance, then that's going to scare some kids away from it."