Burning Out

Where first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

It was the third week of September and in anticipation of a parent-free weekend, Danny, a senior, restocked his refrigerator with Coors Light and invited friends to his house for a night of illicit fun.

Four weeks earlier, he had signed an athletic participation contract promising that he would not abuse illegal drugs or alcohol during the fall sports season, fully aware that consequences for breaking the pledge included being ineligible for one year.

Though Principal Darryl Williams says that punishments await athletes who choose to violate the contract, some students say that they consider the agreement merely a trivial piece of paperwork. Despite formally pledging to abstain from using illegal substances, many Blazers consider a breach in the contract worth the risk, saying that without significant pressure from coaches and the athletic administration - or a high risk of being caught - they can continue to drink and smoke without compromising athletic standing. Even when drugs and alcohol endanger their own health and the success of their teams, some athletes continue to party.

No big deal

On the night of Danny's party, neighbors called the cops, police officers arrived at his house to break up the festivities and Danny and several others were cited for underage drinking. In Danny's mind, it was only a matter of time until he was kicked off his team for violating the contract. Yet no punishment ever came. "I was lucky," he says.

Taylor, a senior who also drinks, claims to have known several athletes who have been cited at parties but later faced no repercussions for their actions. And, she says, she wasn't surprised. "It's really hard for you to get kicked off the team," she says.
With the supposed low criminal risks and high social rewards of underage drinking, Taylor says that she sees no reason to stop. "It's something that I do with my friends. It's not worth it to not go," she says. "I've been doing it for two years, so I know when a party sounds sketchy."

When a cop car arrived at a St. Patrick's Day party Taylor was attending last year, she says it was clear that it wasn't worth it to stay. "I didn't even get my cell phone," she says. "I just left."

Still, Taylor says that the widespread drinking and lax enforcement policies she has witnessed significantly devalued the athletic participation contract. Although her coaches urges the team to behave responsibly and follow the law, she says that the apparent lack of punishment eliminates the threat.

Coach cares

Although some athletes don't take the contract seriously, the coaches who hand it out do. "I try to hammer home the fact that it matters," says softball coach Louis Hoelman. "We definitely take it seriously."

Hoelman says that he knows some members of his team have decided to drink and smoke illegally, and understands that the limits of his influence sometimes extend only to the boundaries of the softball field. But by having his players sign the contract, he hopes it will serve as a protective stand-in when he's not around at parties. "We have to do whatever we can to make them take it as seriously as possible," Hoelman says. "I don't know what else as a coach you can do."

Still, the drinking and smoking persists. A 2001 study that examined drug and alcohol abuse by high school students in Massachusetts found the usage rates of athletes to be higher in some cases than non-athletes. Dr. Diane Elliot, principal investigator for the ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives) steroid, drug prevention and health promotion program, says that the motives for athletes in drinking and smoking are wide-ranging. "Student-athletes engage in unhealthy behaviors just as much or even more than their non-athlete classmates because of peer pressure, use by athletic role models, depression, insecurities, low self-esteem and boredom," she says.

In coaching, Hoelman says he uses his experience and knowledge of the game to better the play of his team, as any teacher would. But in his capacity as part-time parent — overseeing more than a dozen players each weekday for two months, for close to three hours at a time - Hoelman strives to impart fatherly advice. "[The contract] isn't about winning or losing. It's about caring for your athletes and using everything you can to keep them out of trouble. We're using athletics to teach them rules," he says.

Williams oversees the enforcement of the drug and alcohol contract at Blair, just as he did at Gaithersburg, and says that Blair's policy is far more stringent - for good reason. "We want to make sure students are taking good care of themselves," he says.

Above the influence

Among the rule-breakers, there is also a significant student-athlete population that chooses to abide by the contract. Junior Wayne Henderson, a member of this year's boys' varsity soccer and last year's boys' junior varsity basketball teams, says he does not drink or smoke. Although alcohol and drugs dominate the social scene, and although he knows many students - athletes and non-athletes alike - who illegally drink and smoke, Henderson remains true to his convictions. It's not hard to avoid the illicit behavior around him at parties, he says. "I like the way I am. I never did it before, so I'd rather not try and then see the effects on my athleticism."

Williams says that all students should be concerned for and aware of their health. He says that he believes in preserving the wellness of all his students, and that the contract is a protective safety net for at-risk drinkers and smokers. "If there's a problem," he says, "then we need to get them help."

According to Elliot, effects of underage substance abuse are commonly underestimated. "I don't think people realize how alcohol affects their bodies. They don't know that alcohol dehydrates them and causes muscle damage. Drinking alcohol has an immediate consequence on sport performance," Elliot says. "Most people think it will cause liver damage when they are older but [that] nothing happens to them when they are young."

As for those teammates who don't follow Henderson's example? He believes they don't understand the significance of the athletic participation contract which they're required to sign. "They just do it to play the sport. Most people don't even read it," he says. "It's just like a waste of time for them."

However, when Henderson reminds his teammates of the "what-ifs" of illegally drinking or smoking, he is met with ridicule. "They think I'm playing when I say it. I can't tell them what to do, so they don't listen either way," he says.

Some Blair athletes have made the switch from contract violator to follower. George, a senior and a participant in both winter and spring sports, says he used to smoke marijuana, but realized last year that it was time to reconsider his priorities. Before his last hockey season began, he decided that the sport would take precedence over all else. "I didn't want to smoke during the hockey season because hockey's more important to me than smoking," he says. "I don't want to be sitting on the bench because I've been smoking. I wanted to help the team."

Without sports, he says, "I'd probably be smoking still."

Does it work?

According to Hoelman, since so many student-athletes ignore their responsibility to not drink or smoke underage, alternative policies may better serve the contract's preventative purpose. "I think that we need to look at our rule before we enforce it as strictly as possible," he says.

Many student-athletes have their doubts about the efficacy of the contract as well. Mike, a sophomore, says that coaches are nearly powerless to enforce it. "There's nothing really a teacher can do unless [a student-athlete is] dumb enough to come to school high," he says. "And if they're drunk, what are you going to do, give them a DUI test in the middle of school?"

Still, Williams says that it is time for students to stop. At parties, he says, "smoking and drinking…can lead to something else."
But with the infeasibility of a school taking measures to completely ensure its student-athletes are abiding by their pledges, some say they will continue to play and party hard. "If the school and the county and Mr. Miller and the coaches took it more seriously," Taylor says, "then we would take it more seriously."