Commentary:

NJSIAA MAKING A MISTAKE BY TESTING

Needless spending seems to be the forte of the New Jersey
Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The non-profit organization that was exposed last year for its
exorbitant salaries and outlandish job perks is now America's first
to implement mandatory drug testing of high school athletes for
performance enhancing drugs.

The cost of this venture, which received preliminary approval
Wednesday by the NJSIAA executive committee, is $50,000 from the
state and $50,000 from the NJSIAA.

The plan will go into effect next fall pending final approval on
June 7. NJSIAA president Steve Timko said he will use more funds if
needed.

Ironically, this is the same NJSIAA that complained last month about
its financial trouble and, consequentially, proposed last week to
raise school fees.

"We are going to be down $900,000 by the end of this year," Mike
Herbert, the association's attorney, told the Bergen Record.

So they decided to spend more.

To examine urine.

"The money is a concern but this is an important issue," NJSIAA
assistant director Bob Baly said. "It's for health and safety
reasons and evening the playing field."

Thank you Mr. Baly and the NJSIAA, you saved the day.

This makes less sense than cheering for a true suspect, Barry Bonds,
and his shape-shifting body.

Steroid use falls far down on the list of preferred high school
drugs. Alcohol and marijuana, both stimulants that can curtail a GPA
and a future, would win a popularity contest in a landslide.

According to a 2004 study by the Department of Justice, 70 percent of
high school seniors drank alcohol, 34 percent smoked marijuana and
only 2.5 percent did steroids.

But ignoring facts and figures, the state of New Jersey and the
NJSIAA decided to set a precedent by singling out athletes, testing
them for performance enhancing drugs.

If they were truly going to curtail drug use, they would require
schools to adopt the program now enforced in Hackettstown.

The Warren county school randomly tests any kid participating in
athletics, school clubs or on-campus parking for "all the common
drugs of choice in this area," said Hackettstown principal Christine
Steffner.

About 75 percent of the students are eligible to be tested, and the
procedure is effectively working as a deterrent. The school tested 70
kids last school year with one positive.

This year, 150 with no positives.

"We're very happy with it," Steffner said. "The kids are telling us
that it makes a difference at parties, that it's easier to say no."

Such an imposition is not the best solution, but it is better than
the half-hearted attempt by state government and the NJSIAA. Their
plan has more holes than a salt shaker.

First, they are only testing athletes competing in state championship
events.

That sends this message: If you or your team stinks, it's okay to do
steroids to get better. But once the steroids have lifted you to
playoff status, you have to get off them. There is also a message in
this selection process: Steroids must work, because the NJSIAA is
only concerned with the most accomplished athletes.

Second, they are banning 80 performance enhancing substances,
including amphetamines and masking agents, which will inevitably lead
them into the murky world of cough syrups and asthma medications. If
an athlete is on one of these drugs without pre-approval, he or she
may be burdened by a bureaucratic, appeal process. Remember the
Winter Olympics? A skeleton racer with a receding hairline (Zach
Lund) was suspended for applying a drug that would grow his hair.

Third, the suspension is way too harsh -- a year of ineligibility or
three high school seasons. By comparison, Major League Baseball
suspends its players 50 games, or less than two months, for a first
offense.

These are teenage high school kids, not millionaire ballplayers. The
idea should be rehabilitation, not punishment.

Fourth, if an athlete is fanatic enough to take steroids, he will be
conscientious enough to beat a test. Steroids or performing
enhancing drugs are different from recreational drugs because they
are not physically addicting. Athletes often take them meticulously,
knowing exactly how long they will stay in their system, what kind
of test is out there, and when to stop, start or keep going. State
playoffs don't last very long, and neither do the detection times of
some steroids.

So there isn't much positive about this program. Its ideology is
wrong, its enforcement is flawed and it costs a great deal of
taxpayer money. But this is the way of the NJSIAA, and every high
school athlete is a slave to its wrongheaded policy.

If you win too many games now, you are a prime target for a
humiliating test.

Suddenly, losing never looked so good.