Steroids, You're Out

"The median age for beginning to use anabolic steroids and performance enhancing substances is 15 years old."

            It scary to think that sports in America has become so competitive that athletes are trying to gain competitive advantage before they hit high school. But the sport that may forever be linked with performance enhancing drugs is now trying to help combat the problem.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson says, "We're an education center and this falls right into our strength in terms of looking at socials use, using baseball as a lens to inform America's youth the next generation of stars, the next generation of leaders about the value of living a healthy life style and saying no to performance enhancing substances."

            The Baseball Hall of Fame along with the Taylor Hooton Foundation and Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society are conducting a study with the ultimate goal of educating players, coaches and adults.

            Don Hooten of the Taylor Hooton Foundation says, "I am convinced it's the only weapon we have. Ultimately were just like with other drugs, we're not going to police these drugs out of our kids social environment, we're not going to test them out of the social environment. The only real tool that we have is raising awareness so we can educate our kids about the reality of what these drugs are they're taking."

            The survey will begin this fall and organizers say they need to get the discussion started about steroids in order to educate on all levels of play.

            Neil Romano of PBATS say, "This has to go from being a conversation about the latest athlete that's been caught to what's going on in my high school , what's going on in my junior high school. That's what we hope to achieve with this we hope to broaden the conversation because until we do that then we don't even have the opportunity to start the education process."