Steroids: Who's Responsible

BY DAN VEREL AND ALEX K. FONG
Editors

PHOTOS BY COLLEEN CUMMINS / GUARDSMAN

Despite recent scandals surrounding BALCO and elite athletes, City College and 102 other schools overseen by the Community College League of California’s Commission on Athletics (COA) do not have steroid policies or testing procedures.

The COA constitution prohibits the use of tobacco products and controlled substances such as marijuana and alcohol at sporting events but makes no specific mention of performance-enhancing drugs.

“Our athletic programs are held accountable to their own districts,” COA Media Director David Eadie said. “There is no state-wide policy.”

Unlike professional and high school sports, the community college athletic world remains in the background of the steroids issue.

According to Kay Hawes of The National Center for Drug Free Sport, a full steroid panel costs $125 per athlete. At City College, there are roughly 406 student athletes and testing all of them would cost $50,750.

The COA oversees approximately 23,000 to 25,000 student athletes annually. Testing all of them for steroids would cost about $2.9 million to $3.1 million. With a budget funded solely by dues from member schools, the COA maintains it cannot fund drug testing or enforce student eligibility.

Hawes said a test for the most common steroids would cost $50 per athlete, lowering the cost to roughly $1.2 million statewide and about $20,300 at City College.

She added that college athletes generally don’t use designer drugs like those from BALCO, since they often don’t have the resources for drugs that are difficult to trace. A 2004 Institute for Social Research survey found that 3.3 percent of all high school seniors had taken steroids. Out of about 1,500 athletes in the National College Athletic Association tested, one percent turned out positive for steroids, said Mary Wilfert, NCAA assistant director of education outreach. The state senate is currently considering a high school steroids policy.

No such data or legislation exists for the community college level.

“My own guess is that use of steroids probably isn’t rampant,” Rams football coach George Rush said. “Newspapers suggest it’s there. The media highlights tragic cases, but what percentage of those make up the majority? Nobody knows.”

But parents of former community college athlete Efrain Marrero vehemently disagree. Marrero attended College of the Siskiyous in Weed, California, where he intended to play football.

Instead, he committed suicide after experiencing severe depression and withdrawal symptoms after he stopped using steroids.

“My son slowly spiraled into an abyss, and three weeks later he was in a brutal depression and took his life,” Efrain’s father Frank Marrero said.

Some say the pressure to compete on the NCAA level might compel aspiring athletes to try steroids while in high school or community college.

Well-known figures like Berkeley football coach Jeff Tedford consistently look to community colleges for new talent and many consider two-year schools “feeders” for Division I programs. Last year, three City College football players transferred to Berkeley and 19 others went on to Division I programs elsewhere.

“I think, for some people, it’s going to push them more towards steroids so they can get a step above everybody,” said Ryan Peterson, a Rams outfielder who favors testing. “If people want to do steroids at the JC level, they can. There’s nothing to stop them.”

Baseball head coach John Vanoncini said he would be in favor of a testing policy at City College. “The only way to police it and make sure its not being done is to test for it. But until the cost comes down, I don’t think there’s a way to do it.”

Rams defensive end Doniel Galloway said that roughly six or seven players he knew at his previous community college used steroids regularly. “They should check for steroids. It doesn’t make a difference if it’s a two-year school or a four-year school,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with testing. I just want football to be football.”

City College Trustee Milton Marks III disagreed, although he understands why people believe testing is necessary. “We should figure out ways of reinforcing the educational side of what we do, using athletics as a means of educating people about good values and good practices.”

Members of the athletic department at City College believe the next best alternative to testing is education. Several noted that most athletes who choose to use steroids do so out of ignorance about the effects of performance-enhancing drugs.

“Most kids that take it don’t know the side effects,” Vanoncini said. “I don’t see it here, but with no documentation, we have to make our kids aware of it. As educators, you should stop it when you see it.”

Frank Marrero puts it in stronger terms: “We have to put into law some legislation that mandates coaches to get educated, and then you have to hold them accountable.”

Vanoncini and Rush empathize with the Marreros but disagree with their belief that coaches are naïve or purposely turning a blind eye to possible steroid use at City College.

“If you were to look at this from a selfish standpoint, it doesn’t make sense,” Rush said. “It would jeopardize [a coach’s] career, his ability to get hired again, and it would jeopardize his family. And that’s not to mention breaking the students’ trust.” However, he added that if he were in the Marreros’ situation he would react in much the same way.

At College of the Siskiyous, new head football coach Matt Sayre said that despite the tragic suicide of Efrain Marrero, steroid use is not a major issue.

“Obviously, when you have a dramatic case like Efrain’s, it’s going to come up. But I don’t think they’re using it,” he said. “You can’t point to a kid and say, ‘You’re on steroids’ since we can’t test. The only thing I can guarantee is that I’ve never done steroids.”

Steroid Side Effects

Men:
Infertility, breast development, shrinking of the testicles

Women:
Enlargement of the clitoris, excessive growth of body hair

Both:
Male-pattern baldness, short stature, tendon rupture,
heart attacks, enlargement of the heart, liver cancer,
acne and cysts, oily scalp, rage, mania, delusions

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

e-mail: sports@theguardsman.com and afong@theguardsman.com

Staff writer Dan Powell contributed to this report.


Editor’s note: The Guardsman would like to thank the City College athletic department for their cooperation in allowing photographs of athletes in training to be taken, but this is in no way intended to imply that any of the athletes depicted have ever used steroids.

Rams Fall Short in Postseason

BY MILES HARWELL
Staff Writer

Dabareh Jones (behind net) advanced to the second round of the state championships by beating top competitors from Sklyine College. PHOTOS BY COLLEEN CUMMINS / GUARDSMAN

After a stellar season, the women’s badminton team, facing top-seeded Irvine Valley College, fell short of a championship.

In doubles play, Sandy Myint and Maggie Leong finished third in the state, reaching the semi-finals. Sonia Elzin and Dabareh Jones reached the quarterfinals.

“For our girls to compete with that kind of caliber, it’s very impressive,” head coach Mike

Parodi said. “They played hard all season. I’m very pleased.”

Parodi credits the team for the rate of improvement in their performance this season.

“We brought back three girls, and brought in three new girls,” said Parodi, who brought back his No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds for the 2005 season. “They all came together and helped each other out.”

Powered behind the play of sophomores Myint and Jones, the Rams dominated conference play in the 2005 season. One of their seven wins came against top-ranked Skyline College, who was undefeated for the past two seasons. Myint, the Rams’ top player and No. 1 seed, finished the season with a 12-3 record in singles play. All season long, she scrimmaged against male assistant coaches Ray Tan and Ed Pon every practice to polish her skills. Jones, who plays three seed, was undefeated this season in singles competition, holding an impressive record of 18-0.

“At 18-0, her record speaks for itself,” Parodi said. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

In order for the Rams to have won a championship, coach Parodi believed that the Rams needed to play above their heads. He noted that playing Skyline in the post-season was a challenge, with some of the state’s top players on the Skyline team. But both Parodi and the team felt they could win a championship.

“We can do it — it’s in our reach,” Jones said, prior to the post season. “We have great coaches. They make us believe we can win.”

“I think more about strategy and not just hitting hard this year,” Jones said. She credits the closeness between her and her teammates as being an underlying factor in the team’s success. “I love my teammates,” Jones said. “We all have our own personalities, and they blend together.”

Parodi, a running back coach for the Rams since 1979, has coached the badminton team since its arrival at City College in 2000.

“They presented me with the opportunity to coach and I took it willingly,” Parodi said. “We started with nothing and built from there.”

Based on the results, the Rams successfully built a team that vied for a title against badminton powerhouses Skyline and Irvine Valley College but fell short.

e-mail: mharwell@theguardsman.com

SCOREBOARD

Track and Field - State Champs

The men’s track and field team tied for first at the California Community College State Championships on May 14, winning for the second straight year and completing the hat trick of winning the Coast Conference, Northern California and state championships in the same season.

“Two times in a row, that’s quite an accomplishment,” head coach Doug Owyang said.

The men’s team shared a win with Mt. San Antonio College at 63 points each.

Owyang credited the depth of talent in the team and their ability to perform well in many different events.

“It’s a better all around team than last year’s,” said Owyang.

Francis Gadayan was the only Ram to lasso a first place finish, winning the 800-meter run by beating Pasadena City College’s Mario Cobian, last year’s 800-winner.

“He slayed the dragon,” long distance track coach Tony Kauke said of Gadayan. “[Cobian] won the race last year and has never lost to a junior college athlete in the 800.”

Last year, the Rams won by a more comfortable 21 points, beating Bakersfield College 66 to 45.

“It was more like a rollercoaster rather than … like riding a wave,” Kauke said of this year’s win compared to last year’s.

“We’ll take it any way we can get it – we’ve got a trophy here, and that’s exciting.” – Eli Milchman



Woman's Tennis

The women’s team fell short in the state finals after a successful season. Annika Viragh and Jennifer Wong failed to advance in singles play, but as a doubles team they beat Mission before losing to Fresno 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the NorCal Tournament. In the State Championship, held in Fresno May 5-7, they were knocked out in their first match against Saddleback. – Dan Powell