Lt. Gov. Wants Steroids Tests For Texas Prep Athletes

January 27, 2007

Texas is a hotbed of high school football, where the Friday night lights burn brighter.

Many of the Lone Star State's athletes are among the biggest, fastest and strongest in the country.

A key state leader is pushing to make Texas kids the cleanest athletes as well.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is proposing a sweeping program of mandatory random testing for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in the public schools.

It would go far beyond football. Athletes in baseball, basketball, track and other sports likely would be tested, too.

If approved, it would be the nation's largest program of its kind at the high school level, with tens of thousands of students tested every year.

Dewhurst said he believes the program will save lives and said he's "convinced steroid use in high schools is greater than people want to admit."

The question is whether local school districts will want to go along. They constitute a powerful lobby at the state capitol that's resisted mandatory random testing in the past.

Charles Breithaupt is athletic director for the University Interscholastic League, the body that governs Texas public school sports. He says many schools would argue alcohol and other drugs pose a bigger problem for them than steroids.

Texas had 733,000 students participate in public school sports last school year, more than any other state.