MR TWISTER
08-26-2005, 02:31 AM
Over the past few years many issues have come and gone in Illinois wrestling. I was just thinking what are the real issues this upcoming season? Or maybe there are none and we are just going to have a perfect season where the only thing that matters is who wins state? Now I actually doubt that but take a moment, look at this issue and answer the poll.
With all of the issues in professional sports surrounding illegal drugs I was wondering how it effects the high school athletes. At times the pressure to succeed at the h.s. level can be quite high and without proper guidance a h.s. athlete may venture over to the dark side. I remember a few years ago when a wrestler gained a lot of weight/muscle from the previous season and basically came from nowhere to win state. I overheard on several occasions other wrestlers suggest that he must of been on the "juice". In the end he had won state and is now a solid college wrestler on scholarship. What was interesting to me was his peers were suggesting he was cheating, and we all know teenagers never tell on each other if they don't have to.
The training off season is upon the wrestling community for the next 60-90 days. The wrestlers are kind of left on their own during this period to train, get bigger, stronger and better. With no controlled monitoring of what is going on I again began to wonder how does one know if there is cheating or is the entire state on the "up and up". In a perfect world we would like to think everyone is playing fair but... And with role models like Palmero, Sosa, Bonds, Canseco and the like what's to stop a teenager from saying "Why not me?"
Now the only drug testing I know of is the I.H.S.A's fat testing and Homewood-Flosmoor h.s. does random drug testing but no one is looking at performance enhancing drugs at this level. I don't even believe there is a banned products list so if a athlete can get his hands on say maybe some steroids who is going to tell him he can't use them. Especially with no penalty system in place.
I know of one elite athlete that takes about 5 different pills, shakes and juices before he wrestles or trains. Now I am not saying any of these items are illegal but does this wrestler have an advantage over the wrestler that is just competing 'pure'. Hopefully my thoughts are wrong and our young athletes are looking at their pro role models and saying, "That's not really smart and I don't want to do that."
Keep hope alive. Especially since no one is watching.
With all of the issues in professional sports surrounding illegal drugs I was wondering how it effects the high school athletes. At times the pressure to succeed at the h.s. level can be quite high and without proper guidance a h.s. athlete may venture over to the dark side. I remember a few years ago when a wrestler gained a lot of weight/muscle from the previous season and basically came from nowhere to win state. I overheard on several occasions other wrestlers suggest that he must of been on the "juice". In the end he had won state and is now a solid college wrestler on scholarship. What was interesting to me was his peers were suggesting he was cheating, and we all know teenagers never tell on each other if they don't have to.
The training off season is upon the wrestling community for the next 60-90 days. The wrestlers are kind of left on their own during this period to train, get bigger, stronger and better. With no controlled monitoring of what is going on I again began to wonder how does one know if there is cheating or is the entire state on the "up and up". In a perfect world we would like to think everyone is playing fair but... And with role models like Palmero, Sosa, Bonds, Canseco and the like what's to stop a teenager from saying "Why not me?"
Now the only drug testing I know of is the I.H.S.A's fat testing and Homewood-Flosmoor h.s. does random drug testing but no one is looking at performance enhancing drugs at this level. I don't even believe there is a banned products list so if a athlete can get his hands on say maybe some steroids who is going to tell him he can't use them. Especially with no penalty system in place.
I know of one elite athlete that takes about 5 different pills, shakes and juices before he wrestles or trains. Now I am not saying any of these items are illegal but does this wrestler have an advantage over the wrestler that is just competing 'pure'. Hopefully my thoughts are wrong and our young athletes are looking at their pro role models and saying, "That's not really smart and I don't want to do that."
Keep hope alive. Especially since no one is watching.