State gets tough on steroids, By: Eileen FitzGerald

Students who test positive could face one-year suspension

Connecticut school districts must report students who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs

to the state's athletic governing body starting next fall.

Under the new policy, students can be banned from competition for a year.

How to determine who is using the drugs, who would conduct tests, and who would pay for them is left to school officials, who are struggling with the new mandate.

These days, professional athletes and college players are being punished for steroid use, and it's estimated that up to 4 percent of high school athletes across the country are using them.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference wants high schools to include steroids in their existing drug and alcohol policies. Those policies include discipline to address substance abuse, such as suspension, counseling or even expulsion.

The CIAC's sanction for steroid use -- banning competition -- is beyond the local district's control.

"We are finding more and more high school kids who think they can better perform if they are using steroids, and there are even some unscrupulous coaches leading the kids. That's why we felt we needed to address this in a different way," said CIAC executive director Michael Savage.

Until this point, the CIAC, which oversees the events of more than 100,000 student athletes a year, listened to school administrators who wanted drug policies and sanctions regulated and resolved at the local level.

"We wanted to make schools aware that performance-enhancing drugs will not be condoned and that we would stand behind the local school districts," Savage said. "We think it's the issue of health, safety and fair play."

This policy "puts us on the map" as an organization that believes in fairness, that the use of steroids is unfair, and that students should not be on steroids unless they are prescribed by their doctor, Savage said.

He thinks the policy, which also requires districts to provide preventative and interventional education programs for student athletes, can be a deterrent.

"I think once there are a few youngsters who are denied eligibility, it will spread like wildfire across the state," Savage said. "I think it's going to be a positive deterrent, even though it's coming from a negative direction."

'We have a lot of issues with this'

Students and administrators said they don't have a problem addressing steroid use. The minefield is the lack of money and direction needed to identify students using the drugs and then dealing with them.

"I've never heard about anyone using steroids, but it's a good policy," Danbury High School junior Kevin Holmes, a football player and wrestler, said last week. "I don't have a problem with it. It's not too harsh. It's a good thing to have."

Danbury High senior Emmanuel Omokaro, a sprinter, wrote a proposal for a national youth leadership conference that suggested every student be tested as a way to determine steroid use.

"It is a strong enough problem to work on, because it could kill the athlete who uses them. They don't look at the long-term effects," Omokaro said. "I'm glad the CIAC is trying to do something, but the proposal is not feasible."

The 17-year-old said it would be too difficult to pick students out of the blue and decide to test them.

Pamela Goodpaster, the athletic director at Joel Barlow High School in Redding for 34 years, said it was "great" to give a message against steroids.

But, since CIAC left school districts responsible for administering the policy and the association doesn't require drug testing, Goodpaster predicted some schools will be more aggressive than others.

Unless a student is in possession of the drug, she didn't think the policy would have teeth, and since this policy's punishment would be tougher than her school's drug policy, she's created an advisory committee to look at the discrepancy.

"There may be a couple of kids using steroids, but I have a bigger problem with other drugs, and that's where I have to put my emphasis -- like drinking and driving and diet pills," Goodpaster said.

Chip Salvestrini, athletic director at Danbury High School, said he supported the CIAC as a step in the right direction but didn't think this was the best approach.

"It's time to do something, but what you want to do is have a policy that is beneficial to everyone, including those who take part in band, sports and drama," Salvestrini said.

"I don't like it that the CIAC steps forward and tests the athlete. Our concern is also the non-athletes. Our athletes are students first who happen to participate in sports."

He said studies show you can't find chemical abuse without drug testing, and this policy demands drug testing to work.

"I'm not a proponent of that, but how else are we going to test for steroid use?" Salvestrini said.

Danbury High School has drafted a policy that incorporates steroids, but Principal Catherine Richard agreed with Salvestrini that she doesn't want to target athletes.

"I understand they are very concerned about kids using steroids," she said, "but we have a lot of issues with this, like who are we testing, how are we testing, and how are we paying?"

Danbury High athletic trainer Devin Healy played soccer and was an athletic trainer at Central Connecticut State University. He said the NCAA's random drug testing was effective because it didn't single out an individual. There are signs of steroid use, such as an attitude change, instant anger or acne, but unless he found the drug on a person, he wouldn't want to single someone out.

Norm Winnerman, executive secretary of the 17-school Southwest Conference -- which includes New Milford, New Fairfield, Immaculate High School, Newtown and Joel Barlow -- and former athletic director in Danbury, liked that CIAC has taken a stand on steroids and allows local school districts to carry it out.

He speculated about two types of athletes who could be swayed towards steroids: those using the drug as a shortcut to get an edge without doing the work, and those aiming high who think this would help them make the leap.

"Examples of college and professional athletes who have been caught can fill volumes. They all have testing and penalties if they get caught, so why would they do it?" he asked.

"If you're a coach or weight trainer, and you see a skinny kid start school in the fall and by March, they are bulking out, you've got to believe that kid is on something,'' he said, and that's when it would be the school's call to test the child.

"It's a serious health issue that kids aren't aware of," Winnerman said. "It's out there. We have an obligation to protect the kids."

Not about 'gotcha'

Nationally, about a dozen states have tackled steroids at the high school level. Virginia bans a high school athlete for two years if he tests positive for a performance-enhancing drug, under a policy that came out of legislative prodding."The burden is on the school district to identify the student. There is no mandatory testing, but about six districts do random testing," said Ken Tilley, executive director of the Virginia High School League.

Many states are watching New Jersey's new policy, that is in its first year, and came with the clout of the governor's executive order. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association has organized random tests of 5 percent of the athletes who participate in championship competitions during the school year.

Parents must sign consent forms for testing at the start of the school year, and those who will not agree to testing are not allowed to compete.

With about 10,000 athletes in state championships, about 500 will be tested in the course of the year, with 60 percent of the tests from students playing football, wrestling, track and field, swimming, lacrosse and baseball.

So far, 150 tests done in the fall were negative, but no more results will be released until the end of the school year to protect the confidentiality of the students, said Bob Baly, association vice president.

The association allotted $50,000 for the testing, which the state has matched.

Baly said the group hired a national company to do the test, the same company that tests for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and minor league baseball.

The testing company randomly chooses some players to be tested from each competition. The students go to a room with an adjoining bathroom to provide urine samples that are carefully guarded and labeled with bar code.

The urine is shipped to the University of California at Los Angeles World Anti-Doping Agency for processing. Students can bring their parents to the testing if they want, but no one has, Baly said.

A student who tests positive must receive counseling, withdraw from competition for the year, and provide a negative follow-up test to resume play.

"We don't want to do this to play 'gotcha' but to deter students using steroids. That's what we want to do," Baly said. "We want them to start to consider what we are talking about."

New Milford's Lance Pliago is among area athletic directors who support an anti-steroid policy to keep students safe, but he thinks enforcement and funding make the CIAC policy difficult.

"In principle, it's a really good idea to test," Pliago said. "While it's good to find out who are hurting themselves and help them get help, the financial issue is a problem. I don't have money to do it."

He would support random testing of students by a medically trained person, rather than pointing to a person whom he suspects.

"We have certain students who are exceedingly dedicated in the weight room and they are getting stronger. I don't see it (steroid use) as a problem here. I'd be hard pressed to point to anyone now," Pliago said.

"I hope this is just the beginning. When I worked at the college level there was random testing by the NCAA, when every student was tested. When you catch a couple, it puts pressure on the sport."