Steroid abuse expert, not surprised
Posted Jun 16, 2010 03:49:58 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An expert in student athlete steroid abuse says he is not surprised by the scandal within the University of Waterloo football team.
UW is working with Don Hooton, the President of the Texas-based Taylor Hooton Foundation, named after his son, a star university baseball player in the US who died of steroid abuse.
The school discovered nine students who either tested positive for or confessed to using steroids, and though many of those cases are still in process, the school suspended the entire football program for the coming school year.
Hooton tells 570 News this case does not surprise him.
He believes you could find nine steroid users on any university team in this country — if you don’t give the students advanced notice they will be tested.
A Canadian Interuniversity Sport official said Monday at a UW news conference, of the 10,000 university athletes they govern, only 202 had a drug test last school season.
Hooton says that ratio is “grossly inadequate,” adding steroid tests are not difficult to beat if the athlete is given advance notice of the test.
Hooton says he will work with UW to use this steroid situation as a catalyst to drive a real education campaign.
Hooton says there two things the general public doesn’t understand: adults don’t understand how widespread the problem is; and people don’t understand how dangerous steroids are, and they should not be called “performance enhancers.”
Hooton says he hopes this is the beginning of a long relationship with the University of Waterloo as they work to turn a negative situation into a positive.
