Should Maryland test preps for steroids?

February 25, 2007

New Jersey recently became the first state to test prep athletes for steroid abuse, and the latest results showed no positives out of 150 tests.

That's a good thing, seeing as how national studies have shown 2 percent of teenagers use steroids before they graduate.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association also stated it would randomly test athletes at tournaments during the 2006-07 school year.

Five years ago, the Times conducted a survey with 88 first-team all-county athletes from the spring season. We asked the athletes a "yes or no" question -- if they had any knowledge of prep athletes taking steroids, and 14 of them said yes.

So roughly one out of every six all-county kids from that spring knew of someone who was abusing steroids while participating in athletics.

Casey Brengle, a Westminster graduate who earned all-county honors in softball that year, predicted the numbers would soon grow, that steroid use was "heading to a bad point."

South Carroll grad Greg Kennell, the Times' Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year in 2002, recalled feeling shocked when a fellow athlete tried to use steroids the previous year to help gain body mass at a more rapid pace.

Kennell, at the time, said the steroid issue "needs to be addressed in high school, right away."