AD takes first step in right direction, By: The New Mexican

February 14, 2007

Martinez secures funding for drug tests at Pojoaque

Matt Martinez wants what the Major League Baseball Players Association can't accept.

Responsibility.

Martinez, like so many athletic directors across the nation, is faced with the daunting task of keeping steroids out of his high school. So at Pojoaque High School, Martinez has taken the only step he can.

He managed to secure funding for random drug testing this school year, testing that doesn't detect steroids, but rather gateway drugs that could be a precursor.

A positive test yields a 45-day suspension. A second offense is forfeiture of the rest of the season.

Steroid testing is part of the overall plan.

"Eventually it will be taken care of," Martinez, pointing out the high cost -- about $135 -- of detecting steroids.

Money, however, is no issue to MLB Players Association. Apparently, neither are morals.

On Monday, the Players Association took another step toward protecting its users. The group, according to The Associated Press, asked a federal appeals court to revisit a decision that would allow the names and urine samples of more than 100 players who tested positive for steroids during the 2003 season to be released to federal investigators. The samples were originally taken to estimate the presence of steroids in baseball, and players and owners agreed to keep the results confidential.

Now that the government wants to find the roots of their steroids, players are scared silent.

It is a shame.

The same high school athletes Martinez is trying to protect through testing are likely the same ones who have posters of MLB players/steroid users hanging on their walls. The same high school athletes who were discussed nearly two years ago at a steroids summit hosted by the New Mexico Activities Association are many who look up to the home-run kings powered by juicing.

It is why Gov. Bill Richardson started a prevention task force for steroids last year, to see if testing was a viable option for New Mexico. NMAA director Gary Tripp and Robert Zayas, NMAA director of communications, were on that committee.

Zayas says -- to put it simply -- the group found steroids are not yet a rampant problem in New Mexico or nationally, at least not enough to be tested.

"But binge drinking is on the rise, inhalants and cocaine use is on the rise," says Zayas, citing a University of Michigan study.

Martinez is trying to stop that now. He has yet to see a positive test, and doesn't want to wait until steroids also become a problem.

Because as much as it is Martinez's, and every athletic directors', responsibility to protect their athletes, it is also professional baseball's.