4B the university daily kansan
sports
thursday, march 11, 2004
Testing utilized to reduce steroid use in NCAA
By Joe Bant
jbant@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Steroids have made national headlines lately in the world of professional sports, with allegations against major league baseball stars like Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Garv Sheffield.
Athletics administrators and NCAA representatives say collegiate sports programs work hard to prevent steroid use, but as with any prevention program, some cases slip through the cracks, and drug use is still a problem in collegiate sports.
Lost in the hype has been the use of steroids in the NCAA.
outreach for the NCAA.
Annually, between 1 and 2 percent of NCAA drug tests come back positive, said Mary Wilfert, assistant director of education
NCAA policies on the matter are strict. It randomly tests athletes at championship events, and one positive drug test results in a year-long suspension. A second brings the potential of a permanent ban. Testing for football and track and field is even stricter, with year-round testing rather than just at championship events.
Since the institution of yearround testing, that figure has dropped to 3 percent.
The policy of year-round testing for football players began in 1990 after a 1989 survey revealed that 9.7 percent of the responding college football players admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Wilfert said the NCAA was looking to include other sports in the year-round testing program.
The Big 12 Conference also tests athletes for drugs with its own program.
"To think that there's no drug abuse in college athletics would be pretty foolish," said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director for external affairs at the University of Kansas. "It would be to say there's no drug abuse in any other aspect of our society."
Individual schools are not required by the NCAA to maintain separate drug testing programs, but the University does. These individual programs do not report to the NCAA and are subject to different rules and standards of discipline.
The random tests involve a
Mark Cairns, athletic trainer at the University, said there were two ways that the University conducted its tests; randomly and voluntarily.
selection of players from every sports team being tested throughout the year. The voluntary tests are for players who have drug problems and ask to be tested.
At the University marijuana was the most common drug found and steroid use was relatively uncommon Cairns said.
The University's disciplinary policy for positive tests differs from the NCAA's. It requires counseling for the first offense, suspension for the second offense and expulsion for the third offense. There is an appeals process for athletes who think they've been punished unfairly.
Cairns said players weren't punished for voluntary participation because they were expressing an active desire to rehabilitate.
He thought other universities had problems with steroids, but
would not offer names.
"There are some institutions we've known that have probably used performance-enhancing drugs for years," Cairns said.
He said players for these universities seem to lose body mass around championship time when the NCAA tests.
Cairns said the stricter NCAA rules had reduced the problems, but they were still there.
Senior baseball player Ryan Baty said the drug testing policies of college athletics were good, but he wished there was more education about the harmful effects of steroid use.
"You hear rumors, but nobody knows exactly what it does to your body," Baty said. "All we know as a team is it's illegal."
—Edited by Michelle Rodick
Courtesy KRT
San Francisco Giants left fielder Bany Bonds walked back from the batting cage during his first day of spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Feb. 23. Accusations of steroid use by professional athletes, such as allegations surrounding Bonds, have raised questions about what is being done at the collegiate level to prevent it.