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Drug study: College coaches 'looking other way'
Nearly a quarter of NCAA steroid users are 'certain' coaches knew
03:09 AM CDT on Thursday, April 27, 2006
By GARY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
I would like to see a congressional inquiry into this issue. Nearly 25% of college players are certain that their coaches knew of their use? This doesn't surprise me a bit, in fact it seems like it may be on the low side. And if this is the number in college, I can't imagine what the the number would be at the high school level where the coaches have more control and influence on the athletes and the culture.
Now if Congress can get up in arms on the basis of "role-models" exerting undue influence on the Youth of America, I ask you this: At the high school level, who do you think exerts more influence over the life of kids? Their coach or their favorite athlete.
The numbers I have seen indicate that teachers (coaches) are right up their with parents and slightly ahead of the athlete. But I don't want to get into a battle of the studies, because as we've seen with the "reported use of steroids by youth" studies, they could be all over the map.
Although it may sound cynical, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that the reason is the ratings for a Congressional Inquiry into coaches would not quite pull down the same numbers as the anal probe, uh inquiry of Roger Clemens.
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Drug study: College coaches 'looking other way'
Nearly a quarter of NCAA steroid users are 'certain' coaches knew
03:09 AM CDT on Thursday, April 27, 2006
By GARY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
Among NCAA athletes who reported using anabolic steroids in the organization's most recent study, 24.1 percent said they were "certain" their coaches knew they were using the banned drugs.
Pete Carlon, athletic director at the University of Texas at Arlington and a former member of the committee that oversees the NCAA survey, said he was "startled" and "disappointed" by the finding.
"If that's true, then somebody is turning and looking the other way," Carlon said Wednesday.
Mary Wilfert, the NCAA's associate director of Education Outreach, said the finding indicates a need for additional education of coaches about steroids.
In the NCAA's 2001 study, 20.7 percent of steroid users said they were certain their coaches knew.
The NCAA, which published highlights from its 2005 survey in August, posted the entire study on its Web site Tuesday. Just 1.2 percent of the nearly 20,000 athletes in the study said they used steroids, down from 1.5 percent in 2001. Since its first study in 1985, the NCAA has surveyed athletes about their drug and alcohol use every four years.
Other findings from the 2005 study:
• Of steroid users, 17.8 percent said they got their steroids from a coach, athletic trainer or team physician.
• 4.1 percent of the athletes said they used amphetamines, which, like steroids, are performance-enhancing substances. Amphetamine use has increased steadily from 2.1 percent in 1993 and is highest (4.6 percent) in Division III.
• Use of steroids (2.3 percent) and amphetamines (3.9 percent) by baseball players equaled use by football players.
• 5.2 percent of women's softball players said they used amphetamines.
• 11.2 percent of the athletes said they had "been taken advantage of sexually" one or more times in the last 12 months because of their drinking or drug use.
• Among those who said they had used amphetamines "recently," 27.9 percent said they used the drug as treatment for attention deficit disorder (ADD) and 9.7 percent said to improve athletic performance.
Frank Uryasz, president of the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts the NCAA's drug-testing program, said his group is seeing greater use of ADD medication.
"Some athletes are readily sharing their prescription drugs," he said Wednesday. Any use of stimulants, including Ritalin and Adderall, increases the risk of heat illness for an athlete, he said.
Uryasz said he expects the latest results from NCAA drug-testing to be released later this year. They will include the first findings from year-round testing of Division I baseball players.
"We had a disproportionate number of pitchers test positive," he said. "I didn't expect that."
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