MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Steroids testing at the high school level hasn’t quite reached a fever pitch nationally, but it is getting closer to Oklahoma.

Texas looks to begin testing athletes next month, the result of a two-year, $6 million program approved by the state’s legislature last May.

New Jersey and Florida already do. So why not Oklahoma?

Area coaches favor such testing, but they have one overriding concern — the cost.

“The problem is that it’s so expensive,” Muskogee football coach Matt Hennesy said. “Where would the funding come from, I don’t know.”

Hennesy remembers when he was an assistant coach at Jenks and he said it cost $100 per test for steroids.

“If you figure 100 football players, you’re talking about $10,000,” he said. “(The cost) may have changed since then. I think it’s great (to have testing). I don’t see how anyone can afford it.”

According to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, the cost per test in Texas will be $175. The state looks to start as early as February. Last week, it selected The National Center for Drug Free Sport, the company that tests NCAA athletes, minor league baseball and other leagues, to conduct the tests.

High school officials in Texas said it will test between 40,000 and 50,000 athletes in public high schools by the end of the next school year. All 764,000 public high school athletes are eligible to be tested in Texas.

New Jersey was the first state to test its athletes, starting in the 2006-07 school year. It does random testing and tested 500 athletes in its first year.

In Oklahoma, it’s just reached a discussion point at the legislative level.

“It’s left up to the local school districts,” Ed Robinson, associate executive secretary of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association, said. “The Legislature has talked about it at different times.”

Right now, area high schools test their athletes for drugs such as marijuana. And, coaches wouldn’t mind if steroids testing was included at some time.

“I’d be for any program to test,” Vian football coach Brandon Tyler said. “Kids don’t understand the long term the consequences of taking steroids are very, very serious. There’s pressure if you’re on the third or second team and are looking for a chance to be on the first team. But there are so many other supplements out there that are safer. It’s just not worth the risk.”

At least one football coach said testing could be a deterrent.

“If the kids know they’re going to be in athletics, they’re going to be tested and it will give them something to say no to if they feel peer pressure to do it,” Hilldale’s Don Hendrix said.

Still, the cost of steroid testing remains the major concern for area coaches.

“That’s the challenge to everything,” Tahlequah football coach Kenneth Thornton said. “The longer I’m a head coach, the more I figure out that the world revolves around money.”

Hennesy has a more affordable alternative to testing for steroids.

“Education is important,” he said. “It’s important for our athletes to know about steroids and for the parents in signs they can be seeing at home.”

Wagoner coach Dale Condict agrees that educating the athlete about steroids is a good idea.

“We keep our kids informed on what they can and can’t be using,” he said. “There are plenty of things that are legal. If testing was a mandatory, it would be real burdensome on schools.”



Kenton Brooks writes for Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix.