What’s the difference in today’s sports players compared to the past? Now athletes play for a truckload of money. High school sports opens a gateway to professional careers. Unfortunately, steroids dribble into sports, but why? Millions of advertising dollars go to professional athletes. Being the best, make the big bucks, embodies the high school student’s dreams.
For athletic role models; their supporters range from the two year old tyke who throws their first ball to the elderly gal and gent who watch TV sports habitually. The athletes are seen and heard in all they do. They’re admired, respected, and looked up to. Remember this ironic speech, “Do as say and not as I do.” Actions speak louder than words. Adults expect sport’s idols to show young people the right thing do? A role model’s job does not end in the last inning. Are athletes aware of the influence they inject in our offspring’s minds? If star athletes use steroids, then it’s plausible other athletes could conclude it’s acceptance to succeed?
Communities’ values and acceptance play a part in this scenario. This sports minded community and high school theme shouts simultaneously. “Anything is acceptable in order to succeed, just win!” Being the “Star” athlete at any high school reaps its rewards. If steroid use distinguishes the achieving high school, then maybe it’s acceptable? Do teachers overlook student’s poor grades and just pass them through the system ignoring their lack of education and forgetting integrity? Do students sense their grades are due to their athletic skills and not their brainpower?
Why should a student take steroids? Pressures and demands on students are enormous between practices and studies, then time evaporates. The relentless pushing for high performance and results; parents summon and feed the athlete’s or their own dreams, “Don’t you want to be the best…The Best…it’s our dream?”
Success in high school sports can make or break a strong, much less fragile, ego. Sometimes the means does not matter if the end results turn out students who succeed. Do other students and faculty just look the other way while athletes down the pills? Muttering, “They are strong and no one will tell.”
Missing the mark, not being the best, while your parents are perfectionist, can instigate unbearable isolation. An aspiring athletic star holds their breath until they hear the crowd’s roar again and savors success. All fear seem to disappear, floating on a cloud of success. Acceptance on any level yearns for a A+ grade, but on an athletes level it’s the envy of every sports fan. The sports enthusiast attention can internally provide a false sense of stardom. The student’s expectations of grandeur are crushed after grasping the realization, it cannot last. Their parent’s disappointment in losing their star; we can only hope makes them comprehend how human we all are.
There are several conflicting opinions on whether the use of steroid has health risks.
The predominant consensus states steroids should be used for a limited timeframe and supervised by a physician. Unconsciously, professional athletes set examples for fans, high school students become role models to younger starry-eyed athletes. The steroid user’s shame of hiding the truth, telling lies to keep the secret, overwhelms these stargazers.
Steroid accompanied by paranoia can change behavior. Some become arrogant and abusive thinking nothing can stop them on their rollercoaster high. The fear of being discovered; provokes distrust of everyone. In the eyes of the user who pays the price for success by steroids, they lose respect, and disintegrate while the cloud of success dissipates. Who gains and who loses in the steroid game to succeed. The “Win, Win” attitude innocently initiated in grade school can abruptly change once it turns into “Win at all Cost” in high school. There is nothing wrong with having a drive to achieve and injecting young athletes with an attitude of success. Taking a few steroid pills can lead to taking more and embarking on a painful journey. Eventually, steroid-using star athletes lose, graduate, and become role models with a negative degree.
For more information:
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
888/644-6432
Web site: http://www.nida.nih.gov/
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI)
800/729-6686
Web site: http://www.health.org
Sources:
“Teenagers’ steroid use ‘at an all-time high” by By Anita Manning. Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bbw/2002-07-11/special-steroids2.htm (28, Mar. 2006).
“STEROIDS: PLAY SAFE, PLAY FAIR.” © COPYRIGHT AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, American Academy of Pediatrics, 141 Northwest Point Blvd., Elk Grove Village, IL, 60007, 847-434-4000. http://www.aap.org/family/steroids.htm, (28, Mar. 2006).
“Are Steroids Worth the Risk.” ©1995-2006 The Nemours Foundation. All rights reserved. http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/drugs/steroids.html (28, Mar. 2006).
