HIGH SCHOOLS THANKFUL FOR 'WAKE-UP CALL'

As devastated parents testified before Congress of the deadly effects of
teenage steroid use, local coaches called for better monitoring of student
athletes and possibly testing at Bay State schools.

"I'm all for drug testing at the high school level. If we're allowed to
test for marijuana, steroids or any other drug, I'm for it 100 percent,"
said East Boston High School football coach John Sousa.

Sousa called the hearings into Major League Baseball's steroid scandal "a
wake-up call."

"The message I've sent to the kids is don't put anything in your body that
doesn't belong there," he said. "There's no substitute for hard work. You
can't put a price tag on your body."

John DiBiaso, athletic director for the Everett school system, said the
city closely monitors student athletes through an in-house strength program
and discourages students from using outside gyms.

"When they're 14, 15, or 16 years old, they're very impressionable. If you
let them go to a private gym, you don't know who's talking to them,"
DiBiaso said. "Some guy might come up to them and say, "I can make you
twice as strong in half the time.' That's not the way it's supposed to work."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who recently hired former Patriots lineman Garin
Veris to rebuild the city's youth sports programs, said local officials
should use the baseball scandal to educate students.

"Coaches, athletic directors, parents should make young people aware of the
issue of steroids and the effect it could have on you later in life,"
Menino said. He added that it should be "mandatory" orientation material
for student-athletes.

"(School officials) have the duty to notify athletes of the effects," the
mayor said.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversees
school sports, has considered, but not implemented, various drug testing
policies. A random student-athlete drug testing policy passed in Oklahoma
was recently upheld by that state's Supreme Court.

"'There has to be some type of monitoring system here and enforcement so
the guys that want to achieve and do that right thing don't have to
compromise their bodies," Sousa said.

"'Would that limit the number of kids that play for me? Maybe," he added.
"But I certainly think it's worth it because it would send the message to
all athletes to take care of their bodies."