Published: Oct. 23, 2013
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
Donald Hooton just wants to save your child from what
happened to his. In 2003, Hooton’s 17-year-old son, Taylor, committed suicide
after suffering from depression, brought on when he stopped using anabolic
steroids.
“It was devastating,” Hooton said. “There aren’t any words
in the dictionary that can describe it when you lose a child.”
Once he did more research as to why he did it, Hooton
couldn’t believe what he discovered.
“It is unbelievable to how many kids were using anabolic
steroids and we had no concept that these drugs can be as dangerous as they
are,” Hooton said. Since then, Hooton has become one of the nation’s most vocal
leaders in preventing steroid or performance- enhancing drug use by young
student-athletes, especially those younger than in high school, founding the
Taylor Hooton Foundation.
“We need to be getting to these kids,” he said. “The younger
the better.”
“With this one single outreach with an organization, we have
an opportunity to affect the lives of millions of children in one swoop,”
Hooton added. “I’m extremely proud of the legacy that Taylor is leaving. Hopefully
we’ve got the opportunity to affect the lives of a whole bunch of kids.”
This summer, Little League Baseball announced it will
introduce a drug education program, starting next year.
“It is our hope that once Little League Baseball has
implemented the program, most, if not all, other baseball leagues will be
inclined to pick them up,” Hooton said, adding the awareness shouldn’t be
limited to just baseball. He applauded Little League for being one of the first
youth sports organizations to step up in this rapidly growing problem. He hopes
other organizations don’t lag too far behind in all sports. “It’s exceedingly a
positive thing that Little League Baseball is taking this step,” Hooton said.
“We need to be talking to these kids when they’re younger. Eighty-five percent
of kids have never had an adult ever talk with them about why they shouldn’t
use these drugs.”
❑
So why are kids using steroids?
Brad Burns, a manager with the West Bend Warriors traveling
baseball team, suggested the pressures on student- athletes, regardless of age,
from parents, coaches, classmates and even themselves is where the blame should
be focused on with kids using steroids.
“It’s sad from the standpoint there’s a lot pressure on
kids,” he said. “In some cases it’s from parents as far as expectations and
achieving excellence and achieving a scholarship. That’s where the problem lies
at the lower levels.”
Area student-athletes agree with Burns.
“I think athletes might take PEDs because they feel they are
in the shadow of another, greater player on their team and feel the need to
outshine their competition,” West Bend East’s Natalie Geidel said. “I also
think some might take PEDs because they know colleges are recruiting them and
want to try and impress the coaches as much as possible.”
West Bend West’s Dane Mauland said, “Maybe the kid is
feeling a lot of pressure to do well from home, teammates, coaches. The athlete
doesn’t know how we can meet those expectations and doesn’t realize it’s OK to
fail sometimes.”
In today’s professional sports, money is such a driving
factor for use or even thought of use. And for a long time, those players were
easily getting away with using drugs without any penalty.
Young athletes saw this and often asked themselves, why
can’t I do it?
“They might think they aren’t good enough so they try to
make themselves better with PEDs,” East’s Cassie Gillian said.
As sports fans today are seeing with concussions, more is
being learned about the long-term effects head injuries have on the body.
That’s not quite the case with PEDs. The sample size is too small for people to
see what can happen in the long run.
“With the long-term repercussions, the jury is still out on
that,” Burns said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen long-term yet.
“As time moves forward, there’s going to be more answers
about the use of PEDs. Hopefully it’ll be a deterrent.”
❑
An empty victory
Mauland had an interesting take as to why he doesn’t take
PEDs.
“When I was younger, I played a deer hunting game on the
computer,” he said. “There was a cheat code that would teleport you to the
biggest buck in the game.
“After I killed the buck using the cheat, I thought ‘Sweet.
Now what?’ It was an empty victory. It didn’t mean anything.”
Burns and Bill Schubert, president of the West Bend Little
League, said they leave it up to the parents to discuss steroids with their
children.
“I think any increased awareness, no matter the age of the
child, is a good thing,” Burns said. “Anything you can put in place early on
and create a habit, that way kids are doing it at a younger age.”
Gillian suggested student-athletes should be tested, while
Mauland and West Bend West’s Ryne Prinz suggested lifetime bans.
❑
Will steroids ever be eliminated?
It’s possible, but not likely, Schubert said.
As technology advances, so does the possibility of drugs
being introduced that will be harder to trace through testing. If that trend
continues, sports will be dealing with PED use for years to come. The hope is
it’s not as abundant as it is now.
In addition, the pressures of being involved in sports,
especially as college scholarships are getting increasingly more difficult to
obtain, will continue to linger over the heads of student-athletes of all ages,
thus increasing the motivation to use PEDs.
“Major League Baseball needs to set a precedent,” Burns
said. “The only way that can be done is one strike and you’re out, lifetime
ban. I think that’s when guys will stop taking it.”
Hooton hopes the health problems people can develop from
steroid use will eventually turn them off from the use, too. He pointed to
professional wrestling as an example.
“The average professional wrestler is 12 times more likely
to die from heart problems than the average male which relates to high use of
steroid use,” he said.
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