 | | 02-26-2005, 01:11 PM |
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| Master Fan
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 14,030
| High school team faces steroid accusation
This is a bit of local news for me, considering it is about my high school but it has been making national news as of late and shared the front page with the story about the FW woman and son that were killed.
From ABC NEWS Quote:
Feb. 4 DALLAS — In what may be one of the largest cases of confirmed steroid use at a U.S. high school, nine students at Colleyville Heritage High School admit using banned steroids, according to a published report.
The Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District said eight seniors and one junior have confessed to using the muscle-building drugs "for a short period of time in the spring of 2004," The Dallas Morning News reported in Friday's editions.
The students also gave officials information about an adult who provided the drugs, McClure said Thursday.
The district continues to investigate and is still considering whether to discipline the students, McClure said in her written response to the newspaper's questions.
McClure did not return a telephone message from The Associated Press, and a telephone call to Heritage by The AP was not answered early Friday.
However, one Heritage athlete told The News that he bought steroids from a senior starter on the school's football team. The student said that a dozen or more football players had used steroids, including at least three juniors.
In the spring, the athlete said he injected for six weeks a steroid called nandrolone decanoate — known as Deca.
The athlete and his mother agreed to tell their story if their names were not disclosed. The woman discovered the steroids in her son's bedroom closet and said she reported to school district officials that players were using the performance-enhancing substance.
"Nobody's afraid of getting tested because they know the school can't afford it right now," the athlete told the newspaper.
The school district said it began investigating after an "anonymous parent" called the school and reported the alleged steroid use.
"Campus officials made repeated inquiries through multiple individual and group meetings with athletes during the fall 2004 semester," the school district said. "In every instance, the student response was to deny steroid use."
The students eventually admitted using steroids last spring, the school official said.
The school district has taken no action against the students because their admitted steroid use occurred "within the 2003-2004 school year," McClure said in her statement to The News.
"District officials are currently conducting a review to determine whether disciplinary action is appropriate," McClure said.
The high school does not test students for steroid use. However, possession or sale of steroids without a prescription is a federal offense, punishable by up to one year in prison and a minimum $1,000 fine.
In November, Heritage head football coach Chris Cunningham denied to The News that any of his players were using steroids.
"In the nine years that I've been here, I do not know of a single case," he said. "And I'm talking about our entire athletic program."
Cunningham, who said he did not know the identify of the woman who reported the steroid use, said, "This lady is a liar. She's got a son she caught taking steroids, and she just wants someone to blame."
The News reported that during the past week, it has made attempts to contact Cunningham. He sent an e-mail Monday that he would only respond to written questions because of the subject's sensitivity.
Football players with Heritage contacted Thursday evening by the newspaper refused to speak with reporters.
"I have no comment about that," one football player said after answering the door of his home in Colleyville, an affluent Northeast Tarrant County suburb. "Our coach — we're just not talking about it. I don't want to get into any of that."
The father of another athlete slammed the door after saying, "I have nothing to say to you guys; thanks a lot."
A search of news databases shows that the only other known instance in which several high school students admitted to steroid use was in Buckeye, Ariz., in fall 2003.
The mother of a Buckeye Union High School football player found steroids in her son's room and called police. Ten students admitted using steroids after being questioned individually for several hours by football coach Bobby Barnes. They were suspended for the rest of the season. Another player had quit the team already.
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