High School Steroid Testing?

February 22, 2006

Maryville, Blount County (WVLT) - Unlike some kids up north, those in Tennessee will not be tested for performance enhancing drugs this post-season.

Recently the governor of New Jersey mandated that high school athletes playing for a state championship would be required to undergo steroid testing.

 Would that work here?   Daryl Hobby goes in search of an answer.

 Society is into quick fixes and quick results," says George Quarles, Maryville Head Football Coach.

 The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 3.4% of all high school seniors admitted to using steroids at least once last year. Among 8th graders, that figure was nearly two percent.

 "If there is a problem in Tennessee with high school athletes having made use of either performance enhancing drugs or steroids, I think it's something that ought to be considered. But to be honest, it's not something I've thought about. I hope we haven't come to that pass," says Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.

 "Drug testing to me is a great preventive measure. You're gonna give kids reason not to do it," says Quarles.

"I'm not so sure it's not a political move when you say steroids in baseball, steroids in football and all of a sudden it comes out in high school. Anything to scare a kid into not using drugs is a positive thing. I just think money wise and education we need to make sure that money is used in the right way," says Halls Football Coach Kevin Jullian.

Coaches are with their players all the time. They're on the game fields with them. Practice fields with them. Classrooms. They walk the halls with them. Coaches get to know their players. The coaches we talked to said they would hope they would know if one of their coaches in on steroids. The key word being hope.

"You'd hope you'd see the signs. You hope you would recognize that you have kids using them," Quarles says.

"If a kids got a problem, or something like that, or shows signs of steroids use, you're gonna know that as a coach. And if you don't, you're not paying attention like you need to be," adds Jullian.