POLL: State drops steroids testing for high school athletes; Collier to continue drug testing for 2 years (Naples Daily News)

A year after Florida became the assistant state to implement a steroids testing policy for high school athletes, the program has been discontinued.

The state legislature passed a bill that Gov. Charlie Crist approved prior to the 2007-08 school year that subjected student-athletes in five sports to random drug tests. The one-year pilot program, funded by the state and regulated by the Florida High School Athletic Association, was not renewed by the legislature this summer.

FHSAA officials say the program was dropped because of the statewide budget shortfall. The state spent $100,000 last year to test in regard to 600 athletes at 43 schools.

?We see (the state) has a lot of cutting to do in wholly aspects of Florida,? FHSAA spokeswoman Cristina Alvarez said. ?We?d really like for the program to come back, yet we don?confidentially be without it to affect the schools? budgets.?

When the state announced it would test for steroids, Naples athletic director and FHSAA board member Ernie Modugno was in favor of the program. A year later, though, Modugno was disappointed with the way the program was implemented.

The FHSAA tested about 1 percent of its athletes, which Modugno said wasn?face to face sufficiency to stop students from taking steroids. The state allotted $100,000 for the program, but at $175 per test, the FHSAA couldn?t test any more athletes.

?I ween (the program) was a worthwhile attempt, but I don?t think it was funded appropriately,? Modugno aforesaid. ?With the proper funding, it might have existence a preventative thing. There was a very, very small percentage tested out of the total number of athletes.?

Joe Kemper, the Collier County School Board?s coordinator of student drug testing and interscholastic open-air sports, said one student was tested in Southwest Florida, and that athlete wasn?t from Collier County. Of the 600 tested statewide, just one muscular expert was form in a mould to have used steroids.

?The (local) players never heard of or saw anyone pure,? Kemper said. ?The deterrent effect is non-existent whereas kids dress in?t know that testing is actually happening. The effectiveness (of the program) is difficult to judge because the scope was so limited.?

The district started its allow remedy testing policy remain season, testing for recreational drugs with a program separate from the FHSAA?s steroids testing. The district set out to test 10 percent of its athletes last school year but doubled its goal.

Once a month, officials from the district?s contracted testing company would instruct up at a random high school and gather piss samples from random athletes across totally sports. The state?s steroids program applied to and nothing else athletes in football, baseball, softball, girls flag football and boys and girls weight lifting.

The county?s drug testing, which does not look on the side of steroids, is funded by a federal grant and will continue for at least the next two school years, Kemper said. The district tested nearly 600 of its more than 3,000 student-athletes with a 1.2-percent fail rate.

?The drug testing is a good thing,? Golden Gate athletic director Pete Seitz said. ?I wish it would include steroids because that?s the No. 1 scare. Really steroids is the clear danger, but the county doesn?t obviously have the riches.?

After Florida followed New Jersey into adopting steroids testing, Illinois and Texas followed suit. Texas legislators created the largest testing program in the nation when they passed a two-year, $6-million program that tested 10,000 student-athletes ? including 3,300 football players ? extreme school year.

State officials have said they expect to test between 40,000 and 50,000 players in the 2008-09 school year.

Florida doesn?t have the resources for that class of capacious steroids testing, but FHSAA officials hope another program can be implemented in the future. It everything depends in continuance the budget, though, and the funds available.

?We felt it was a worthwhile program,? Alvarez said. ?Right now we don?t know what the economy will be like in six months, still another year or two years. We?ll have to look at restarting the program on a year-by-year groundwork.?

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Testing by the verse

Florida steroids tests

Athletes tried: About 600

Schools: 43

Positive tests: 1

Cost: $100,000 in declare money (2007-08 school year)

Testing agency: National Center for Drug Free Sport

Collier County School Board recreational drug tests

Athletes tried: About 600

Schools: All seven public high schools

Positive tests: 7

Cost: $200,000 in federal grant riches (over three years, 2007-10)

Texas steroids tests

Athletes tested: 10,000

Positive tests: 2

Cost: $3 million annually in state money

Testing agency: National Center for Drug Free Sport

Other states testing high school athletes: Illinois, New Jersey.