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7/28/06 I was truly sorry to hear about
American Floyd Landis and the news surrounding him just after his
victory at the Tour de France last week. Overnight, a real life fairy
tale turned into another steroid investigation. Amish? Bicycling? What’s next, can we trust any athlete anymore? Imagine Joe Slugger from the local High School fulfilling a dream by hitting a game-winning home run to capture the State championship for the Novi Wildcats. Immediately after crossing home plate, before he can truly celebrate, he is escorted by an official to a private room where he is required to take a steroid test. Sound farfetched? Think again. Lawmakers in California and Florida have been working behind the scenes for years to pass a landmark bill requiring schools to randomly test athletes for performance enhancing drugs like steroids. The only hold up? Cost. Unfortunately statistics show that steroid use among High School students is on the rise. A State Senator in California produced a committee review highlighting a survey of 500 kids, showing that 11 percent of boys, and 5 percent of girls had used performance enhancing drugs at least once. Numbers aside, steroids are a high-profile issue. President Bush has condemned them in his State of the Union Address, Balco employees from the Bay Area are serving jail sentences, and even Barry Bonds entire career is under question as a result of his dealings with his personal trainer. This is a tough one because parents are in the middle. Lawmakers argue that mom and dad are often the last to read the signs and see the debilitating effects. Meanwhile, our schools are not in the business of acting as law enforcement agencies. Then, there are privacy issues. And of course last but not least is the cheating factor. To those that work hard and stay clean, they often resent individuals that cheat to gain an unfair edge. In the end it all evens out. If legal and social issues don’t catch up to the cheater, then health issues will. High School sports are the last bastion of the ardent sports fans. Like riding a bike, you never forget the purity of kids at play. To interrupt a celebration to make sure it was done cleanly by administering a mandatory test seems draconian. Has it come to this? I hope not. If we can’t trust them, who can we trust? (c) 2006 Novi
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