Your Steroid Resource

BY ANDREW MAY, Staff Writer

A collection of coaches from Frisco ISD and several from Celina and McKinney listened intently as Don Hooten spoke Sunday about the dangers of anabolic steroids at an anti-doping summit at Frisco Liberty High School. Hard not to pay attention to a man who has experienced firsthand the deadly consequences of performance enhancing drugs.

Hooten’s son, Taylor, committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 16 after suffering from severe depression resulting from injecting anabolic steroids to bulk up for the Plano West baseball team. Soon after Don started the Taylor Hooten Foundation and has delivered his message directly to more than 35,000 parents, coaches, doctors and athletes across the country.

Sunday’s summit, sponsored by Baylor Medical Center at Frisco and also featuring speeches by Dr. Tedd Mitchell, nutritionist David Meinz and attorney Matt Barnett, was unlike the hundreds before it. It was the first time Hooten was speaking directly to coaches who have such a meaningful and lasting impact on high school athletes. He concluded the hour-long speech highlighted by a poignant video by specifically addressing the coaches in attendance. He urged them to take a proactive stance on the deadly drug that ultimately ended his son’s life.

“They’re in the power position,” Hooten said. “They make the decision who makes the team and who sits on the bench. We hope they exercise that power to get this problem stopped.”

Hooten said one in 27 high school athletes has tried or is currently taking some form of anabolic steroid. And that doesn’t begin and end with the linemen on the football team or the heavyweight wrestler. The fastest growing group of users is girls in eighth through tenth grade, according to a recent study conducted by Seventeen Magazine.

The University Interscholastic League released the results of its first year of steroid testing for athletes less than a month ago. During the 2007-08 school year, just two of the 10,117 random urine samples tested positive for steroids. Four additional samples are undergoing further tests because of elevated testosterone levels. Assuming those are all ruled positive, that would still only mean .06 percent of student-athletes tested positive, a figure that is down sharply from national averages. Hooten hopes the low percentage is the result of foundations like his spreading the word and creating awareness. “This is so much larger a problem than the general public is aware of,” he said. “Our first objective is raising awareness about how big of a problem it really is and not just continuing to deny that it is not going on in my school or district. Second is to educate parents, coaches and teachers about how dangerous this drug really is.”

Hooten has visited half of the 30 Major League Baseball ballparks so far this summer to educate children and has spoken to every player in the women’s professional fastpitch softball league. Former United States Senator George Mitchell, who last year headed an investigation into past steroid use by major league players, recommended that Hooten hold the program for all big league baseball players, but he has yet to reach an agreement with the union.

Hooten praised FISD athletic director David Kuykendall for his desire to educate the coaches in the district and get them exposed to the message about anabolic steroids.

“It is not typical of what we usually run into with the coaching community nationally,” Hooten said. “It is extraordinarily refreshing.

“The kids sometimes don’t like to hear it because it’s hard work to do it the right way and coaches are sometimes hesitant to deal with the steroid problem because that might be their starting quarterback or whatever. Hopefully we left them with the message that it can be a life or death issue.”

The California Office of Administrative Law has given its final approval to a regulatory amendment that reclassifies the anabolic steroids stanozolol, boldenone, nandrolone, and testosterone to give trainers stricter penalties for violations.

The California Horse Racing Board will begin enforcement of the amended rules on September 4.

Adopted by the California Horse Racing Board on July 17, the amendment moves the steroids from Class 4 prohibited substances to Class 3, labeling them as “drug substances whose major pharmacological effects are on the cardiovascular, respiratory and/or autonomic nervous systems.”

The penalty for a positive test above the authorized levels also relocated from Category D, a minimum $500 fine for first-time offenders, to Category B. Under the new regulations, a first positive test will result in the disqualification of the horse, a redistribution of the purse, a minimum 30-day suspension and a fine up to $10,000.

Under the CHRB medication guidelines, all other anabolic steroids have been classified as Class 2 or Class 3 violations with Category B penalties since July 1.

The committee that determines what rankings are assigned to major U.S. thoroughbred stakes races announced this afternoon that a track must effectively ban anabolic steroids — if its state regulators don’t — in order for stakes races to keep their grade next year.

The American Graded Stakes Committee today said states or racetracks through house rules must adopt, at a minimum, the proposed model rule from the Association of Racing

Commissioners International and Racing and Medication Testing Consortium by Jan. 1 or the date of a state or racetrack’s first 2009 graded race in 2009, whichever is later.

That rule bans anabolic steroids, except for four that could be given no closer than 30 days to a race. Promoters of the rule say that is effectively a ban on anabolic steroids by the time a horse would race.

Also, the committee issued a similar edict requiring adoption of a similar rule banning front toe-grabs.

As an example, the committee designates the Kentucky Derby as a Grade I race. Kentucky has not adopted either rule yet, but is studying both. If the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission did not adopt those rules, Churchill Downs would have to adopt them as a track rule before its first graded stake of next year, which would be during Derby week.

Reporter Gregory A. Hall

DENVER (CBS4)

There wasn’t a Rockies game Tuesday morning, but 60 kids showed up at Coors Field to get some time on the field and learn about healthy living.

The “Play” campaign promotes a lifetime of activity for youth and they took their message to Coors Field with the help of some popular Rockies players. “Play” stands for Promoting a Lifetime of Activity for Youth.

The main theme of the event was to teach kids why they need to always steer clear of steroids. National speaker Don Hooten explained that they pushed his son to suicide.

“Taylor Hooten; he started using steroids and six months later he died,” Don Hooten said. “He had just turned 17 years old.”

Hooten’s message about steroids made an impression.

“It can be really bad for you and it can make you die,” one of the participants said.

The athletes also got a chance to encourage the youngsters to get off the couch.

“I’m just assuming since we are playing a lot more video games, a lot of kids are not getting out as much as we used to,” Ryan Spilborghs said.

Overall, the event was a big “hit.”

“I want to do this again next year,” another youngster said.

A Jefferson City man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to possessing with the intent to distribute anabolic steroids and faces a possible five-year prison sentence.

Jason Varner, 34, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Knox to the charge in an Oct. 18 federal indictment, U.S. Attorney John Wood announced in a news release.

Varner was charged in Operation Raw Deal, last year’s international investigation targeting the trafficking of anabolic steroids and its raw materials, mainly from China.

A former Columbia resident, 38-year-old Bryan Wilson of Kansas City, and his ex-wife, April Wilson, 32, of Columbia, also face federal charges in connection with the investigation, which is believed to be the country’s largest steroid enforcement action.

Varner was arrested Sept. 19 at a commuter parking lot off Route AC while allegedly delivering steroids to a source cooperating with investigators.

Law enforcement officers later found 44 vials of anabolic steroids in Varner’s residence, the news release said.

Under federal laws, Varner could be sentenced to as much as five years without parole plus a fine of as much as $250,000, the news release said.