Coaches often talk to their teams about their use before the season starts. Pamphlets and information are sent to schools, warning that their use is illegal. The Southern Section has no specific policy of testing high school athletes for steroids. “There were schools that canceled games with us because these supposedly illegally built-up players were going to hurt their kids.”
“Even though it wasn’t true, it was hard to shake the label,” he said. Pendleton said parents at other schools had accused Esperanza of using steroids to bulk up its football linemen. “I’ve been working with kids for 20 years, and in my experience the use may be down the past couple of years but it’s still constant.”
“The connections for the drugs are made through local gyms, not the high schools,” Pendleton said. For example, the NCAA banned their use from collegiate athletics in the 1970s but did not start testing for steroids until 1986.īut though they are a prescription drug, steroids are easily obtainable through the black market. Steroids have been a federally controlled substance since 1990, and are banned for use in most competitive sports. For track runners, certain brands of steroids increase endurance, reaction time and overall mobility and strength without increasing size.” And all kinds of athletics are using them. “The athlete who doesn’t use them at the upper levels is an unusual athlete. “The reality is there is an advantage created by using them,” he said. Mooney said continued moderate use of steroids, in cycles of six to eight weeks, can make it harder for their use to be detected in drug testing. According to most medical research, long term-and high dosage-steroid use has been linked to hardening of the arteries, liver damage, liver dysfunction, testicular shrinkage, impotence, heart disease and cancer.įootball star Lyle Alzado, who died of brain cancer in 1992, often tied his 20-year steroid use to causing the cancer, even though he had not used steroids for five years before his death, and there was no controlled study or research producing evidence that such a neurological calamity had occurred.Īthletes who use steroids can put on as much as 10 to 15 pounds of muscle in a month, according to Mike Mooney, a writer and medical research associate with the Program for Wellness Restoration, a nonprofit AIDS research group based in Houston.
The effects begin to reverse themselves when steroid use is discontinued.Īmong the common side effects are hair loss, acne and mood swings. Their popularity began with weight lifters and body builders in the 1960s, and spread among football and track athletes in the 1970s.Īthletes use them to increase strength by regenerating tissue and to recover faster from their workouts. Steroids-made from the male hormone testosterone or synthetically created-have been around sports since the 1940s, according to Scientific American magazine. “Half the problem is,” he said, “the more information kids are exposed to, the more they want to use it.” “With hard work by itself, you can improve your strength and become the athlete you need to be.”īill Pendleton, Esperanza’s defensive coordinator and strength coach, says most teen-age users of steroids don’t understand the risks involved-and might not care.
“The benefits of strength training from weights-without steroids-have been proven,” Dr. Axtell said he has never prescribed steroids for a high school athlete, and doesn’t know a doctor who has.
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