Steroid testing not in the plans for District 51, By: Kent Mincer

The Colorado High School Activities Association has not addressed the issue of steroid use among the state’s high school athletes to the extent that the Florida High School Athletics Association took on Tuesday.

That association instituted a program of random testing for Florida’s football, baseball and weightlifting athletes for the coming school year.

“The (CHSAA) leaves that up to each school district,” said School District 51 Athletic Director Steve Phillips.

Phillips said the issue of steroids has come up more frequently in presentations at Colorado Athletic Directors Association meetings, although CADA has not offered any preventative measures.

Chief among the concerns for District 51 instituting such a policy would be the cost, Phillips said.

“Obviously that would be a (school) board decision,” Phillips said. “There would have to be some sort of grant for us to even consider it.

“There are other things we’d like to address first,” Phillips said.

He stressed the district is not taking a head-in-the-sand stance.

“We’re not trying to ignore those issues,” he said.

Use of illegal substances is addressed in the contract athletes sign with their schools in order to participate in sports.

Brandon Milholland is an assistant football coach at Central High School. He also coached Central’s state-champion bodybuilding team for three years.

“In (my) four years of coaching, there were, maybe, two kids (in the district) rumored to have been using,” Milholland said.

Based on that, “I don’t know if there’s a need (for testing),” he said.

The fact that Florida is testing randomly draws concerns from Milholland.

“How would they do it randomly? Draw names out of a hat?” he asked. “If it’s going to be done, it’s got to be done across the board.”

Milholland said he was approached by parents of his bodybuilders asking what supplements their sons should take.

“I told them, ‘Just (eat) more protein,’ ” he said.

“I’d tell (the kids), ‘The biggest thing is, if you use (illegal substances), it’s cheating. It’s not right.’ ”

At state bodybuilding competitions, adults would have drug-free and open divisions. Milholland said he would point out some of the open division competitors he believed were using illegal substances and tell his students, “You don’t want to look like that.”

He would also point out the negative long-term side effects of steroid use, such as sterility and the possibility of getting cancer.

Phillips said educating the student-athlete is the best way to prevent use from becoming an epidemic.

“I would hope that’s addressed through individual programs, that we’re trying to do things the right way — through weights and conditioning, not substances,” Phillips said.