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State's Testing Of Student Athletes 'Going Very Well'

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By NICK WILLIAMS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2007

TAMPA - With the release of the Mitchell Report on Thursday, state Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami, said he hopes others will finally take notice of what he considers a trend of young players using steroids.

That is why he began urging the Legislature to support a bill that would allow a testing program to deter student-athletes from abusing anabolic steroids in Florida.

Although it took four years to convince the Legislature, House Bill 461 was passed and signed by Gov. Charlie Crist in June, making Florida one of three states, along with New Jersey and Texas, in which high school drug testing is mandated by law.

Under the law, 1 percent of high school athletes participating in football, baseball, flag football, softball and weightlifting will be tested. The tests are administered by the Florida High School Athletic Association, with $100,000 appropriated by state legislation to fund the pilot program.

In his report, Mitchell, former U.S. Senate majority leader wrote, "It's important to devote attention to the Major League Baseball players who illegally used performance enhancing substances. It's at least as important, perhaps even more so, to be concerned about the reality that hundreds of thousands of our children are using them."

The state's athletic association has a contract with the National Center for Drug Free Sport to administer the tests. Drug Free Sport randomly selects schools and athletes to be tested for anabolic steroids such as madol. Frank Uryasz, president of the National Center for Drug Free Sport, said in a previous interview with The Tampa Tribune that he was surprised high schools didn't implement a testing program earlier. He said high school sports will never reach the level of steroid testing that surrounds the Olympics or even college sports, but even though these are teenagers, testing is necessary.

"I'm certainly glad it has been implemented," Llorente said. "Young student-athletes in Florida have already taken notice that they can potentially be tested. The professional sports issue related to steroids has raised the awareness. This highlights the issue."

State athletic association spokesman Robert Hernberger said the association can't comment on any test results, positive or negative, but said "the program is being conducted according to the guidelines set by Legislature."

Hernberger said the association will submit a report concerning the steroid-testing program to the Legislature in the spring.

"It's going very well," Llorente said.

Under the bill, student-athletes who test positive will be suspended in all sports for 90 school days, which will begin the day the school is notified. Athletes have the option to appeal the test results and will be given the opportunity to take an exit test on the 60th school day of the suspension.

For information on the steroid testing program, visit fhsaa.org/compliance/steroid_testing.

Reporter Nick Williams can be reached at nwilliams@tampatrib.com or (813) 865-4848.

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