The debate over steroids in baseball is not limited to the professional level. Indeed, many claim the single biggest problem with professional ballplayers’ use of performance-enhancing drugs is the example it sets for younger athletes.
“I could almost care less about what happens to Jose Canseco — he just proves there’s more horses’ asses in America than horses,” Madison attorney Ed Garvey said. “The big problem is the students who grow up in poverty that will do whatever it takes [to make the pros].”
Statistics paint a discouraging picture for those like Garvey concerned with increasing steroid use in high school athletics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 16 high school students used illegal steroids in 2003 — swelling from one in every 27 students in 1999.
Andre Gosch, president of the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association, says he has yet to see much evidence of the use of steroids in high school baseball in the state. But Gosch is increasingly concerned with the proliferation of so-called “steroid precursors,” supplements acting like steroids once the body metabolizes them.
Included in this category is androstenedione, the drug St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGuire used during his record-breaking homerun campaign in 1998.
“At our level, there’s more of a concern with things below the steroid level,” Gosch said of precursor drugs.
The growing prevalence of steroid precursors led U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, to spearhead the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004. The law, which President Bush signed into law late last year, prevents patients from obtaining steroid precursors without a doctor’s prescription.
Gosch says the will exists for testing in high school, but the costs of administering tests prevent it from implementation.
“I cannot see the finances to do something like [testing],” Gosch said. “The most we can do is talk about it and continue to preach that health is more important than statistics.”
The Northwoods Baseball League, home to the Madison Mallards, likewise does not administer steroid testing due to cost concerns. But according to Mallards General Manager Vern Stenman, steroid abuse in the league has nonetheless declined during the last 10 years.
Stenman attributes the trend to recruiting practices of the team, which serves as a summer league for college ballplayers.
“We strive to get the best character kids from these schools,” Stenman said. “We’re more concerned with what each kid is like off the field and how he represents the team in the city than necessarily performance on field. Obviously, that’s important, too, but we want to balance those things.”
According to Stenman, stemming the tide of steroid use in younger baseball players is not necessarily contingent on reducing the practice in the major leagues. Instead, parents and coaches are largely responsible for athletes’ behavior, he says.
“Is it really Jose Canseco’s responsibility to not let my kid grow up and do steroids?” Stenman asked. “A lot of responsibility has to fall on the parents. People make major athletes almost too responsible for those kinds of things.”
Athletes and drugs at UW
The University of Wisconsin does not need to worry about its baseball players taking performance-enhancing drugs. UW eliminated the sport in the early ’90s.
All other UW sports, however, are subject to a stringent testing procedure administered by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The policy, which is administered through the National Center for Drug Free Sport, subjects each Division I school to testing for anabolic steroids, peptide hormones, analogues and street drugs and stimulants at least once a year.
Under the NCAA policy, student athletes are notified no more than 48 hours before the test is administered. Athletes who test positive are subject to severe penalties — including a yearlong suspension and loss of a year of eligibility.
UW Associate Athletic Director Steve Malchow says the stringent penalties play a large part in the lack of steroid scandals in college athletics.
“We’ve had drug-testing policies in college for a number of years, and they’re fairly strict,” Malchow said. “The policy is pretty deterrent. I think that’s a big reason why you really don’t read about steroids in college in the news.”
The NCAA conducts additional testing during postseason play. That means the UW men’s basketball team, currently in Oklahoma City for their first-round game in the NCAA basketball tournament, is subject to drug testing during any round of the competition.
