Pubdate: Sat, 06 Aug 2005
Source: Johnson City Press (TN)
Copyright: 2005 Johnson City Press
Contact:  http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1983
Author: Douglas Fritz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

PREP SPORTS - DRUG TESTING SHOULD BEGIN IN HIGH SCHOOL

It may sound tough when a player gets suspended for 10 days from 
Major-League Baseball for using a banned substance. And it may sound even 
tougher when the Olympic form of punishment -- a two-year ban for strike 
one, and for strike two a ban until the Chicago Cubs win the World Series 
- -- is discussed as a possible deterrent to cheating on a physical level in 
baseball.

But while the whole thing may seem like a mess Major League Baseball has 
created, it really isn't.

It may be within the realm of possibility that Rafael Palmeiro simply woke 
up one day, after a lifetime of playing by the rules, and decided to take 
steroids to gain an unfair advantage. But doesn't it seem more likely that 
Palmeiro's attitude was shaped long before he made his debut with the 
Chicago Cubs in 1986?

Shouldn't Palmeiro have been subjected to stricter standards when he was a 
minor-league baseball player? Shouldn't he have been monitored closely when 
he became a college baseball star at Mississippi State?

Perhaps the answer to those questions is negative because that was a long 
time ago. Attitudes were different, people were generally ignorant about 
the dangers of steroid use, and testing may not have been very effective.

But it is now.

So what are we doing about it?

Is there a rush afoot to make sure every college athlete understands the 
dangers of drug abuse, including penalties for doing it? Do high school 
coaches make sure to include speeches about avoiding performance-enhancing 
drugs before, during and after the season?

There is a commercial currently circulating on television, talking about 
what steroids do to a person's body. Is that enough? Is talking enough? 
Drug-education classes are critically important, but are they enough?

Perhaps it's time for every high school in Northeast Tennessee to start 
doing a little something more. Perhaps it's time for random drug testing of 
all high school athletes. The expense of such tests would be a concern, but 
wouldn't it be worth the investment?

It's one thing to tell kids how bad things can get if they use 
performance-enhancing drugs or other kinds of drugs, including marijuana 
and alcohol. But it's another important step to implement a drug-testing 
program to seek out those who are abusing their bodies. It may not help 
everybody, but if it helped a relative few it would be worth it.

Think about it. The star first baseman for High School A, just months away 
from signing a lucrative professional baseball contract, gets kicked off 
his high school team for testing positive for marijuana.

Gone is all that money for that young man. Gone is any semblance of 
athletic pride. But what is left is the indelible mark it would make on 
every kid at that school. Wow, look how that guy screwed up his life, all 
because of drugs.

But the lesson of failure isn't the central issue. The central issue is the 
common sense fact, as one area high school coach put it, "It's easier not 
to start something bad than to have to quit it."

The whole point of the matter is: If you want to raise apples, plant apple 
seeds.

It would be almost impossible to change someone like Rafael Palmeiro -- 
without a time machine. Fortunately there's no need for such a device to 
change the Rafael Palmeiros of 2015 and beyond.

Sow education and good old-fashioned moral teaching in today's youth, and 
reap a better generation.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom