Missouri softens a proposal for steroids testing

~ State legistators to consider a less costly random sampling of high school athletes involved in postseason competition.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state senator has toned down a proposal to randomly test Missouri's high school athletes for steroids because of concerns it would cost too much.

Instead, Sen. Matt Bartle outlined a new plan Tuesday to randomly test only a sampling of athletes participating in high school playoffs or postseason competition. The cost would be borne by the fans, in the form of higher postseason admission fees collected by the statewide nonprofit group that oversees sporting events.

Bartle presented his proposal to a Missouri Senate committee on the same day that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig testified to Congress about how it was dealing with steroid use among its professional athletes.

Florida, New Jersey and Texas already have passed state laws requiring random drug tests for high school athletes. The Illinois High School Association board on Monday approved random drug testing during postseason play. That policy covers about 95 percent of the state's high schools.

Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, said Missouri lawmakers and coaches would be naive if they didn't believe steroids were a problem for high school athletes.

Random testing "is critically important for not only the safety of the students, but critically important to protect the integrity of the games," Bartle told fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he is chairman.

The committee took no vote Tuesday on Bartle's revised proposal. Legislative researchers had estimated his original proposal mandating school districts conduct random tests of all athletes could have cost public schools more than $1.5 million annually.

Bartle drew support from Gene Gieselmann, who served as an athletic trainer for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1968 through 1997. Gieselmann now is on the board of directors for the Taylor Hooton Foundation, a Plano, Texas-based group that supports efforts to stop or prevent steroid use among young people.

"We do have a problem," Gieselmann told the Senate committee, adding: "This problem just isn't with athletes, it is everywhere."

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and a lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association expressed concerns Tuesday about the intrusion on privacy that occurs with drug testimony. They both expressed a preference for it to be used only when there is cause to believe a student athlete has used drugs.

The Missouri School Boards' Association also has been critical of mandatory testing for high school athletes, as have some high school coaches.