Steroids abuse concerns WIAC, By: Don Walker
Raid at UW-Stout a wake-up call
Feb. 19, 2007
In the 11 years Gary Karner has been commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, he has never run into a case of an athlete being caught or using steroids or other performance-enhancing substances.
That changed late last year when police seized steroids and other drugs from the homes of two UW-Stout linebackers. Dunn County authorities are now weighing what direction to take in the steroids end of the case. At the same time, Stout administrators moved quickly and imposed random drug testing for all athletes at the school.
Karner stopped short of suggesting all member universities in the conference adopt drug testing.
"Drug testing should be up to each institution," he said in a phone interview. "I doubt that we are prepared on a conference-wide basis to do this."
Dunn County District Attorney James Peterson declined to release a police report on the incident involving former players Luke Steffen, a senior, and Nicholas OrRico, a junior. But he said liquid testosterone and a masking agent were confiscated in the seizures. In addition, cocaine and marijuana were confiscated.
Peterson said his office didn't know a lot about steroids, but "We want to see how far the information we can get will take us."
The two face an assortment of other drug charges stemming from the seizure. A court hearing has been scheduled for next month.
One interested party in the Stout case is the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which conducts research, education and testing on the use of performance-enhancing substances. An anti-doping official said the organization would contact Peterson for details on the case.
Frank Uryasz, president of the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which manages many of the NCAA's drug-testing programs, called the Stout case unusual and rare.
"Our studies have shown that it is fairly common that users of steroids also use other substances," he said.
Asked where athletes find steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, Uryasz said people who train at gyms as well as personal trainers often are the source.
"Another source is the Internet," Uryasz said.
A 2005 NCAA survey found that, among athletes, the use of amphetamines has increased since 1997, but that the use of anabolic steroids has decreased slightly since 2001.
Even before Stout acted to test its athletes, the school had agreed to join an NCAA pilot program in which a random number of athletes would be subjected to drug testing. At the same time, the school would educate its athletes on drug use.
