Article

N.J. teenagers make program look good

Thursday, September 13, 2007 • BY BEV McCARRON • Star-Ledger Staff

In the nation's first statewide screening program for steroids, only one New Jersey high school athlete of the 500 tested was found to have a trace of the performance-enhancing drugs, the administrators of the test said yesterday.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association released the results of screening students who submitted to urine tests after competing in state tournament games or matches in the past school year. The students represented 99 schools.

That only one test came up positive shows the screening program succeeded as a deterrent against the drugs, said Bob Baly, assistant director of the NJSIAA.

"We were not looking for any specific number," Baly said. "Our program is designed to deter student athletes."

The program -- which costs $100,000, half paid by the state and half by the association --will test another 500 students this school year, Baly said.

Senate President Richard Codey, who as governor signed the testing program into law in 2005, called the results "great" and said he would like to see double the number of students screened in the future.

"I don't think there's any way we could have been losers, regardless of what it shows," Codey said. "And the fact that one was positive means there's a heck of a lot more than one person out there doing steroids."

New Jersey has some 240,000 high school sports participants, 10,000 of whom reach state championship playoffs.

Of the students tested, 300 came from sports where the risk of steroid abuse is considered high: football, wrestling, baseball, ice hockey and boy's track and field. All together, students in 12 sports submitted to tests.

Baly would not name the sport of the positive-testing student. However, the association reported last winter that all fall sports tests had come up clean.

That student was disciplined, according to Baly. Under the program, a positive result leads to a loss of the student's eligibility for a year, while a senior who wins an individual award is forced to forfeit it. Students also are to get counseling.

NO CRITICS

Among coaches and others who learned of the results yesterday, none suggested the testing be stopped-- especially in an era where abuse is apparently rampant in professional sports like baseball.

Bobby Grauso, athletic director at Hackettstown High School, whose wrestlers were tested at the championships held in March, said the result could show that the testing has warned kids away from steroids -- or it could mean the sampling was too small.

"Either way, it's a positive step in getting kids not to do it," he said.

At Old Bridge High School, where wrestlers and track and field athletes were tested, Athletic Director Dale Gregorin said the results should not be taken to mean there's no steroid problem, and he pointed out that the percentage tested was low.

"There are lots of athletes who don't make it to the finals," he said. "And there are lots of non-athletes using steroids too, like body builders."

Still, he applauded the screening program as an effective deterrent.

"You could be tested, and it's the last thing you want on your record," he said.

Stephen Rice, a sports medicine physician at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports, said surveys typically peg the number of student athletes using steroids at 5 percent.

"So if you are finding a number of 0.2 percent, that's pretty good. On the other hand, you do have a little bit of advance notice here," he said.

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

After finding some athletes had to wait hours after their games to be tested, the NJSIAA is adjusting the process.

One problem the association discovered was athletes who were dehydrated or over-hydrated and had trouble providing urine samples. Another was inadequate facilities.

Because of those problems, some of the testing will take place in schools this year during the week before scheduled tournaments instead of right after a match or game.

The testing program grew out of a state task force formed by Codey in 2005. It found that while steroid use wasn't pervasive in New Jersey, some athletes clearly used muscle-building drugs.

Since New Jersey has adopted its random steroid testing policy, Florida and Texas have followed suit. Illinois has consulted New Jersey about starting one.

The Kansas City-based National Center for Drug Free Sports conducts New Jersey's tests and also screens athletes at the college level.

Baly said the NJSIAA hopes to get approval from the state Department of Education to survey students in the spring, to see if the threat of a test stopped kids from bulking up on steroids.

For parent Rick Vernon, whose son Cory, a wrestling star who was tested as a senior last year at Hackettstown High, the results prove testing is needed.

"It did its job," he said. "You found one kid that needed to be helped. And you are keeping the sport clean."

500 tests for steroids and 499 negatives

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