PIAA NOT PLANNING STATEWIDE TESTING

While Texas, Florida and New Jersey have state-wide testing programs,
Pennsylvania is going a different route to keep its high school
sports drug-free -- education.

In November 2006, the PIAA started a pilot program called STAR
Sportsmanship. Run by an Alabama-based company, Learning Through
Sports, STAR is an internet-based program that teaches
student-athletes about sportsmanship, according to the program's
proposal on the PIAA Web site.

The high school level of STAR Sportsmanship puts a heavy focus on
steroids, their effects, risks and consequences. The goal, according
to PIAA spokesperson Melissa Mertz, is not to create some kind of
penal colony for drug users through mandatory testing.

Rather, the PIAA wants to stop athletes from taking a drug, be
recreational like marijuana, or performance-enhancing, like anabolic
steroids, before they ever think about starting.

"Changing the student's fundamental belief is going to be the key to
turning them around," Mertz said. "We felt that by following the
educational process we're taking a more proactive process."

Which is not to say that catching anyone who uses drugs isn't
important to the PIAA. Mertz said the state's athletic organization
had considered a state-wide program. But with a budget of about $4
million, the PIAA does not have adequate funding for an effective
state-wide program.

Texas' program, according to an Associated Press article on July 8,
costs $3 million.

"How are we going to fund this? That's probably one of the biggest
concerns," Mertz said. "We wouldn't know where we'd even tap into the
money to implement a state-wide program."

Right now, however, education is what the PIAA is equipped to provide.