The Herald-Zeitung

Don’t count Chuck Caniford and Larry Hill among coaches doing back flips upon hearing details of the University Interscholastic League’s long-awaited steroids testing program.

The UIL, the governing body for high school extracurricular activities in Texas, finally released details of how the nation’s largest steroid-testing program on Wednesday. However, it offered no hints on when it will begin.

There’s still no contractor in place to run the program, which was expected to begin late last summer, and it’s very unlikely at this point that the testing will begin at all before football season ends in a few weeks.

But the UIL, bowing to calls for new news on the topic, made available a 14-page document on its Web site on Wednesday. Neither Caniford nor Hill — both preparing their football teams for critical third-round playoff games — had read any of the missive by that afternoon.

“I opened up the document and quite frankly I didn’t have time to read all of that in 20 minutes,” Smithson Valley’s Hill said. “I don’t know if I have a reaction. There’s a lot of legal jargon in there.

“I guess that it means that (the program is) on now. But I don’t have any more reaction than when they told us about it the first time.”

Said New Braunfels’ Caniford: “I haven’t seen it — haven’t had the chance. I hope to get a chance to look at it later on this week. But it’s like I’ve said from the start, that we’re in a little different situation because we already test (for drugs).

“My biggest questions are on the logistical side, such as can we expect our kids to miss more class? But they doing it won’t affect our kids like it might affect the schools that don’t already test.”

New Braunfels is into its second year of testing most of its high schoolers for drugs. The UIL mandate, which will cost $3 million and involve 23,000 students in 400 schools during its first year, will be in force before the end of the 2007-08 school year.

Lawmakers and state officials, including Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, have turned up the pressure on the UIL in recent weeks, publicly wondering when testing would begin. Last week, Dewhurst called for the UIL to release details of the testing program within 10 days.

UIL spokesperson Kim Rogers defended the UIL’s pace, saying that although two other states test high school athletes for steroid use, none do so on the scale that Texas will. Florida and New Jersey also test high school athletes for steroids, but each state only tests about 500 students a year, she said.

“This is bar none the most comprehensive and expansive steroid testing program in the world,” Rogers said. “We’re testing between 20,000 and 25,000 athletes statewide throughout the year on a random basis. We don’t have an exact model to go by. This model was developed from the ground up.”

A spokesman for Dewhurst said the lieutenant governor was pleased that the UIL released a draft of its plan for public review.

“He wants testing in place as quickly as possible but most importantly he wants it in place in the right way,” Rich Parsons said. “It’s a big, complicated process, and it’s important to get it right.”

State Sen. Kyle Janek, who authored the high school steroid testing bill, did not return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The details released on the UIL site didn’t get into many specifics. Hill said he didn’t think the UIL is “dragging their feet” on getting the program started. However, he has concerns what the future might bring once the program has started.

“The interesting part to me isn’t the first year, but down the road,” Hill said. “Will the legislature lose interest after all of this grandstanding? It will be a costly measure and at what point will the legislature get bored and decide not to play for it any more?

“Anybody who thinks that won’t happen needs to look at all the other education reforms they’ve passed and not funded after a certain amount of time.”

Hill, the immediate past president of the Texas High School Coaches Association, said he agrees with the program’s prevention angle, though he doubts there’s much need for it to be run statewide.

“I’m not trying to throw darts and say this is how it should be run,” he said. “I don’t know how they ought to do it. I’m just a little uneasy about what it will mean for the future.”

Fourteen companies submitted bids in July to run the testing program. There is no timetable for awarding the contract, except that it must be done in time for the company to begin testing before the end of the school year, Rogers said.

Under the UIL plan, about 25 forms of steroids are on the banned substance list. The UIL will model its banned substance list after the NCAA’s list and will update it when the NCAA does, Rogers said.

Student-athletes from grades 9-12 are subject to testing. The vendor that runs the program will randomly select schools for testing and then randomly select athletes.

A high school can be selected more than once each school year. A positive test or a student’s refusal to be tested results in a 30-day suspension from sports. A second positive test results in a one-year suspension from sports and a third positive test results in a permanent suspension.

For his part, Caniford said the UIL program should serve as a deterrent.

“It’s not supposed to catch people, but give kids a reason to say no,” he said. “To me, the whole purpose is not to be punitive but give (kids) an out. And from what I’ve seen here, our program has served that purpose.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report