Everyone knows that when you play a high school sport, there is always a meeting that the parents and participants have to go to. Usually during these meetings a coach will talk about grade-point averages and eligibility, rules of the team and unexcused absences. But what about the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs?
In California coaches are making every player sign a pledge that he or she will not use anabolic steroids. Also parents are required to attend a meeting discussing the use of steroids. You may be thinking to yourself “really kids in high school use steroids?” the reality is yes they are.
As soon as I reached high school I noticed a dramatic change in the size of the athletes at school. They were huge, muscular men with tremendous strength and size, this combined with talent made these players very extraordinary. Sure a lot of these people worked hard to get to the condition that they were in, but I wasn’t sure about some of them. One of my good friends, who was also a freshman, was trying out for the varsity football team. He was a great athlete and everyone knew of him. He was a quarterback and surprisingly he had a very good chance of starting over last years starting quarterback, who was now a senior. The senior was a very strong athlete but lacked some of the important skills that the freshman had. The senior was also rumored to be on steroids. In the end the senior started on the team because of his size and power. Surely if the senior was not taking steroids the freshman would of started because of his skill. When you bring steroids into high school this puts the younger kids at a very big disadvantage and it is not fair. This also makes kids tempted to take steroids because they want to be just as big and strong as the older kids.
But much more then starting positions are on the line for these players. Lives are also being put on the line in taking performance-enhancing drugs. In California one high school athlete lost his life, and the parents are saying that it was because of steroids. Players feel the pressure of there sports weighing down on them and therefore feel the need to do something to get to the top. Kids know that a college scholarship is huge for them and there parents, sometimes-even life changing. But is the juice really worth the squeeze?
high school athletes in my town have used steroids and i know a couple of them personally. most people dont believe that high schoolers can even get them. when i work out in the summer, a lot of guys will just come up to me and ask if i wanna buy any. its really not that hard to get a hold of any. plus, in high school we never had drug tests. and if we did, they were so random none of the guys i knew got picked. from the guys i know personally that used them, none of them went on to play a sport in college.
ReplyDelete