SHANDON ATHLETES REACH NEW HEIGHTS

School's declining drug use reflected in football team's best season ever

Shandon student-athletes are the first in the county to undergo mandatory
drug testing, a program school officials and students contend is already
helping to steer kids from drugs.

And so far, the policy has received very little criticism in this small
town in the northeastern corner of San Luis Obispo County. Many at the
96-student high school credit it with playing a significant role in the
football team's best season ever.

Instead of being an issue that has divided the community, it has become a
story of parents, students and school staff rallying around the efforts of
a second-year teacher to help his students quit using drugs.

The impetus for the policy came six months ago, said Russ Edwards, a
teacher and head coach of the football team, the boys and girls basketball
programs and the softball team.

"Being here at a small school ... you pretty much get involved in
everything," said Edwards, who earned his teaching credential from Cal Poly
in 1997. "You really get to know the kids. You really get attached to them."

During an off-campus student event this year, a small group of students was
found smoking marijuana, Edwards said. He described it as the last of
several eye-opening incidents that compelled him to act.

Edwards was one of several chaperones on the trip.

"We felt bad," he said. "Making the phone call ( to parents ) from the park
was something else.

"It was a long trip back."

Almost immediately, Edwards began a campaign to help his students resist
illegal drugs. He called the parents of the students he expected to go out
for sports this school year and held informal meetings in the living room
of his Shandon home.

"They were all very positive, they all believed there was a problem, and
they were happy we were doing something about it," he said.

Widespread support

The program they created has been credited by teachers and students with
reducing drug use.

Some say it even played a role in the football team's remarkable turnaround
this year.

"We had the same people last year, and we won two games the whole year,"
said Steven Estrada, an award-winning member of the varsity squad. "We only
lost two games this year."

Under the Shandon policy, which was unanimously approved by the school
board last summer, students at the high school and middle school who try
out for a sport are tested for drugs ( alcohol, marijuana, meth,
amphetamine, and opiates ) via urinalysis at the beginning of the sport and
randomly throughout the season.

Schools in other states -- Kentucky, Florida and Pennsylvania -- also have
mandatory random drug testing of athletes. And two schools in Oceanside
have tested athletes for three years and even started testing cheerleaders
this year.

"The community is behind it," said Shandon school trustee Eva Tingley.

Like Edwards, Tingley recognized an opportunity for students to use the
program as a way to refuse to use drugs.

"The kids decided 'We don't want to do ( drugs ) because we want to play,'
" she said.

Edwards said 36 students in the school's two fall sports programs -- boys'
football and girls' volleyball -- were tested at the beginning of the
season. More have been tested since winter sports began last month.

In addition, the program tests three student-athletes each week on a
lottery system using every name in each drawing.

"That way everybody has a chance of being picked every week," Edwards said.

Since the program began, Edwards added to the list some chemicals he feared
some students might be using to block detection of drugs.

So far, he said not one test has come back positive for drugs or the
detection blockers.

"I knew that for a lot of the boys who were using, and the girls, that
knowing they would be tested would be enough for them to quit because they
enjoyed playing so much," he said. "I knew we would be successful there."

However, Edwards said that realization came only after his first year at
the school, which involved painful discoveries that some of his students
were using drugs.

"I was pretty naive about what was going on through the football season,"
he said. "Basically, there was marijuana and meth usage."

Edwards, who attended tough schools in Oxnard as a youth, knew the signs of
drug use. The situation was even more clear when he coached basketball last
winter.

"I started to realize a lot of my athletes, and a huge majority of the
student body, was caught up in not only the use but, if not that, the
lifestyle of drug use," he said. "I became concerned."

He said he started talking to students individually about the dangers of
using drugs. When he used a writing assignment in class to ask students if
they thought there was a drug problem on campus, they all agreed there was.

"That just confirmed what I feared and what I thought I knew already," he
said.

Students warm up to the idea

Several student-athletes interviewed this week said the testing program is
a good idea, and that they don't mind giving up a little privacy for the
privilege of playing sports.

Three senior football players -- Estrada, David Broadfoot and Trevor Davis
- -- were honored Monday at the team's awards banquet. They said some players
were shocked when they heard last summer they would be tested for drugs,
but they all came to understand it was needed. However, the players
initially feared losing some teammates who might not be able to stop using
drugs.

"But, when the time came to ( give the urine sample ) ... everybody was in
the mood to play football," Davis said. "Sports is more important. It just
took a while for it to sink in for some of them.

"I think they decided it's not that bad."

Broadfoot estimated about five players had to stop using drugs to make the
team.

All three believe the testing helped the team come together and play
better. They went all the way to the division championship game, where they
were narrowly defeated.

Richard Becker, head teacher at the 96-student high school campus, said the
new policy has been a positive experience for the school. Like Edwards and
Espie Bastian, the school secretary, Becker said he hasn't heard complaints
about the drug testing.

"There's always been a certain amount of suspicion, as there is at any
school, that maybe some of the athletes are doing marijuana or cocaine,"
Becker said. With the new policy, "Those suspicions are basically gone.

"It means more team unity and team spirit."

The lone program

Officials at other schools in the county say they have discussed adopting a
policy like the one used in Shandon, some formally and some just in casual
conversation. At larger schools, cost can be a factor.

Becker said that hasn't been a problem at Shandon, because there are so few
students. The tests are expected to cost about $4,000 a year.

Most officials in other districts said doing something about student drug
use is important, but instituting a mandatory testing policy was not a top
priority.

Instead of having such a program, all the other high schools in the county
have athletic codes, in which the player agrees to general behavior
guidelines that include abstaining from drugs, getting good grades, and
being a good citizen.

Santa Ynez High School in Santa Barbara County is the closest school to
Shandon that tests student-athletes for drugs, but its policy is voluntary.

Edwards said the mandatory program was the right one for Shandon, and that
it helps students resist temptation.

"Having the policy for athletics would give those younger kids an easy
out," he said. "They could say, 'No, my coach is going to test me.' "

Estrada said he is thankful for the extra incentive.

"It was a good thing, something that had to be done for the good of the
team," he said.

Such responses are exactly what Edwards wanted when he pitched the idea to
the school board over the summer.

"The whole reason for it is I care about the kids I'm teaching and
coaching," he said. "It hurt me to see them hurting themselves."

Checked-by: Richard Lake