At least all the pro sports teams in Houston can agree on one thing ..... steroids are bad. In researching this story .....photographer George Jensen and I came across a story I did in 1983 about steroids and the first really big controversy invloving athletes and international competition. Some weightlifters at the Pan Am games that year tested positive for the drug. At the time Tom Tellez ...who doubled as both the head track coach at U.H. and an assistant Olympic coach explained that steroids are a synthetic drug used to increase muscle mass on a human being. At the time he expressed the hope that society in general would shame the abusers of the substance and cheer only for the clean athletes ....but that hasn't happened.

Now ... Texas state senator Kyle Janek's sponsored bill to randomly test for steroids statewide in our high schools goes into effect this upcoming school year. Janek believes it could be as revolutionary to this generation of high school athletes as "no pass no play" was years ago. Janek admits the state's funding will only randomly test about 3% of our state's high school athletes ....but with every athlete having to sign an oath to not use drugs .... he believes this law will be a major deterrent.

Representatives of the Astros, Rockets, Texans and Dynamo were all at a news conference Wednesday lending their support to the new law. Texans offensive tackle Eric Winston told me,"A lot of people have turned a blind eye to this problem in the past but that will change with this law."

I think this is a great move. This should help the high school kids who don't cheat and hopefully it will make for a more level playing field for all athletes. It is my hope that the head coaches and athletic directors ......the people responsible for making sure their athletes are tested properly ..... get behind this project.

What do you think?? Just e-mail me at mmusil@khou.com.

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