I imagine the UIL is sick of this, but the legislature requires it so they continue to test random Texas high school athletes for steroid use. The latest spring results were released last week. 3,308 athletes from 207 schools were tested across the state resulting in 0 (yes, that’s zero) positive results. I’ll bet the administrators of the program hate hearing the same ol’ “why do you do this for almost no results?” questions every time a report is released.

I know the intent is a good one, though I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it began as a result of an envious parent who believed their child’s rival opponent(s) were using performaance enhancing drugs (as opposed to the possibility that they just out-worked their child). I’ve coached too long in Texas to know that petty parental jealousy drive a lot of decisions about athletics at all levels.

Certainly steroid use occurs. I have been aware of it and I have known coaches who quietly pushed these kinds of things a little too much, but I believe it is rare and I know most coaches do not condone steroid use.

So what does it mean? A whole lot of money has been spent on testing since the program’s inception with almost no positive results. Personally, I was a little surprised because I thought more (though still very few) would be caught at first, but almost no one was found to be using steroids. In the first two years of the program, Texas spent $6 million and tested 28, 934 athletes to come up with only 11 positives. It is worth it? Couldn’t $6 million be better spent on drug programs that include all students (and include steroid use)? I guarantee you the crack cocaine problem in Texas schools is a whole lot bigger than the steroid problem.

Just a thought — how about test athletes for all illegal drugs? I’ll bet we’d get quite a few more positives then, only how embarassing would it be to discover who failed that test? Hmmm….