Ed Board wonders why steroid testing isn’t more prevalent in high-school and NCAA sports.
The only regularly tested sport in NCAA Division I athletics is football. But during post-season play, all teams competing in all sports are tested. So why is it that it takes the playoffs for performance-enhancing drugs to become an issue?
And with high school athletics becoming more and more competitive and necessary for getting into a school where a player can be noticed, or even going pro right after senior year high schools should do more to keep kids clean.
The younger an athlete starts using, the more likely they are to use in college and as professionals, if they make it that far. Not to mention the damaging physical and emotional effects steroids have.
While steroids might be the easiest way to make muscles grow, they’re also one of the easiest ways to stay short.
In middle-school and high-school students, steroids are known to stunt growth. And not only that, kids can become dependent on steroids if begun at that young of an age. Also, a teenager who uses steroids is more likely to get hooked on another drug or alcohol in his or her lifetime.
Another thing to remember is that steroids are not only used by male athletes. Women use steroids, too – I think a lot of people remember looking at pictures of some old USSR female Olympians.
While steroids do have physical effects, including possible high blood pressure, liver damage and stroke, there are also emotional effects.
A lot of people who follow athletics know of “roid rage.” Steroid use can cause severe mood swings. Someone may be friendly and docile one minute and angry and violent the next.
So if all of these things can happen to grown men playing Major League Baseball or in the NFL, why are people not stopping high-school students from using them?
People are hoping that the new policy to strengthen NCAA testing will trickle down into the high-school level. There is one problem with this, however. Steroid testing is not cheap. On average it costs $50 a test. If a high school is even required to just test the varsity baseball team it could cost as much as $750, and that is just for a 15-man roster. The cost for a full football team would be much more.
With education money already hard to come by and teachers already complaining about the amount of money being spent on athletics, it may be hard for schools to add another large chunk of money to the athletic budget.
The Texas State Legislature made a large step to correcting that problem, instituting the largest high school steroid-testing program in the United States. But until other states follow, look for the Lone Star State to stand alone on high school steroid testing.
