BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
When Major League baseball players and executives testified at a Congressional hearing on steroid abuse and the testing to be done for it, and three families spoke about their sons who committed suicide after using them, it was a subject that was familiar with families around Brick Township.
For the past five years, the district has enforced a substance-abuse policy of random testing for drugs and alcohol at both high schools — Brick Township and Brick Memorial — for athletes at the schools. Random testing at Brick began two years before Major League Baseball introduced a substance-abuse testing program.
The Brick district expanded its policy two years ago to students with parking permits at their schools to prevent dangers on school grounds from students who may be driving under the influence.
This school year, the policy was expanded to athletes at the two middle schools — Lake Riviera and Veterans Memorial Middle School.
Brick is one of only 11 districts in New Jersey that randomly test students for substance abuse.
Brick high school coaches and athletes, and Athletic Director Bill Bruno, interviewed by the Bulletin said there was no steroid or other related substance-abuse problems with their athletes but still endorsed the policy.
“It [substance abuse detection] is very low,” said Bruno, who praised the program as a deterrent. “It’s very effective. Is it fool proof? No. I’m not naive to think that those students [using drugs and alcohol] are not out there but it discourages those few students.”
As one case in point, the township’s two high school football teams had only three players test positive for substance abuse in the past four years — two at one school and one at another.
“The one kid was upset and stopped everything and did anything to get back to sports. He even got involved with a church,” said one teammate at one school. “Many athletes feel that once you lose the chance to play a sport, you lose everything. And it’s reputation, too, how coaches and people think about you because they’ll know.”
Although wrestling on a higher Olympic level has had some incidents of steroid abuse, Brick Memorial wrestling coach Dean Albanese said the problem, or any other substance-abuse problem on the high school level, is “not very big at all.
“I just think if you have drug testing, it should be the whole school,” said Albanese, who recently had three wrestlers advance to the state championships and whose team was runner-up in its district, ending a string of 19 straight district titles.
Athletes and students with school parking permits must fill out a form agreeing to substance-abuse testing. At the end of each week, Sara Petraccoro, in the district athletic office, assembles a list of athletes enrolled for that season and students who park cars on school property. If an athlete also parks on school property, that athlete’s name is entered only once on the list.
The list then goes to Assistant Superintendent Walter Hrcenko, who administers the list, in which 9 percent of the students are singled out in lists given to assistant principals at each school. Students are taken out of class early the following week for urine samples.
Any athletes who test positive for substance abuse are removed from that team, families are notified and remedial action is recommended.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Brick Township football and track and field standout Rob Mahler, who is going to the University of Delaware this fall. “Of course, there are kids out there who do drugs, but if that’s what they want to do … I heard of a few [who tested positive] with the parking passes.”
At a muscular 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds as a star tight end and defensive lineman in football, as well as the defending county champion in the javelin, Mahler said he understands how some may suspect him of taking steroids or any other strength-enhancing drugs that may show on testing.
“I’m big, so some people are going to think that, but I definitely don’t [take steroids],” said Mahler who said he was never randomly selected for testing. “I never would [take any drugs]. Some kids just grow faster than others.
“Coach [Warren] Wolf keeps on top of things with the football players and if he found out, he’d throw that kid off the team,” Mahler said.
Brick Memorial football star Garrett Graham, who also is a robust 6-5 and who is headed to the University of Wisconsin on a scholarship, said he has not used steroids nor encountered any suspicion of anybody who thinks he has.
“People who have seen me since my freshman year know I’ve always been big and that I kept growing,” Graham said. “It definitely makes kids think twice when they’re in season for a sport, but it still doesn’t have a point when they’re not in season.”
Graham said his team has stayed drug-free and that the testing program seems to be working.
“Pretty much,” he said. “Nobody has tested positive.”
Brick Memorial football coach Fred Sprengel said substance-abuse testing absolutely has been an effective deterrent.
“We lost maybe two kids in five years,” Sprengel said. “But I know there are some kids out there who won’t play sports because they don’t want to be subject to drug testing. For those kids, it’s a matter of not getting caught. That’s the loser today, the kids who have no fear of authority or respect. In my 20 years of doing this, the kids who are throwbacks are disappearing.
“But the issue is bigger than kids losing the season, it’s losing their lives.”
“I don’t think it [testing] is a bad idea, but if they’re going to do it, do it at every school,” said Jordan Marsch, who stars for Brick Township’s football and baseball teams. Marsch said he is not aware of any significant substance-abuse problem on either high school football team in the township.
“I don’t see a need for it [testing] but I
agree that it gives some [athletes] a second thought about what if they do [take] anything,” said Marsch, who did say substance abuse exists with students in general. “I know a lot of kids who don’t get parking passes but park away from school, so what does that tell you?”
Brick Township baseball coach Tom Webber endorses the substance-abuse testing at his school, but apparently has not been affected. He said the testing in place in Brick may not detect steroid abuse because that kind of testing is cost prohibitive.
“That would be extremely expensive from what I’ve read. It would cost upwards to $300 per student,” Webber said.
“I think all students should be tested, but testing athletes is part of the sociology of the school because students [in general] follow the athletes,” Webber said.
Weber said he has been vigilant about possible steroid usage by his players.
“It hasn’t been a major problem with my teams,” he said of steroids and the substance-abuse testing. “We always try to keep an eye out for changes in the body of kids who suddenly get big, but I never noticed any kind of a change in my players that would indicate it. I don’t see that kind of bulkiness, but I can’t say they don’t use vitamin supplements, which are meant for better health, not strength.”
New Brick Memorial baseball coach Jeff Pierce, an assistant coach for the team the past two years, denies any serious problem on his team.
“My kids are all good kids. I don’t think twice about it as far as they go,” Pierce said.
Bill Brunner coaches the Brick Township girls track and field team, but also coaches the weights events and throwers for the boys team as well, and closely follows the sport around the state. Brunner also coaches the middle schools girls soccer team.
“I think it’s a positive thing here at Brick, but it’s too selective picking on the athletes. Every student should be open to substance-abuse testing, if they show any unusual behavior,” Brunner said.
As for steroids, “I don’t think it’s rampant in high school,” Brunner said. “But once in a while you get a bonehead that’s done it.
“There’s been alleged steroid use over the years with some of the better throwers in the state,” Brunner said. “I’ve been around the steroid issue for a long time, but I never suspected anybody in Brick. Certainly, it’s not an issue with any girls on this level but more so on the higher international level where there’s a problem with both men and women.”
Jess Fuccello, an All-Shore player who scored 30 goals for the three-time champion Brick Memorial girls soccer team last fall, said substance abuse is not an issue on her team.
“I don’t think so, not that I know of,” said Fuccello firmly while discussing it on her cell phone before returning from Las Vegas, where she played for the New Jersey PDA Wildcats that went 3-0-1 in a showcase.
“Girls are not into steroids, especially on a high school level,” said the junior forward. “We’re lifting weights right now. We don’t need anything like that.”
And on the middle school issue, Lake Riviera physical education instructor and wrestling coach Paul Panuska, who also coaches in the Brick Recreation Mat Rats wrestling program, said he does not see steroid abuse at this age, but added that the newly introduced substance-abuse testing for drugs and alcohol has been well received.
“It’s a great policy,” Panuska said. “There’s a lot of controversy as to why it’s athletes and not everybody in the school, but it’s because athletics is not required. You have to show correct attributes and ambitions in an activity, and this is one way of doing that. I just feel that students in all activities should be tested.
“At this age, it [drug and alcohol abuse] is there. It’s more accessible now than ever.”
Panuska said that steroid abuse is included in his drug education lectures, and how the long-term effect is very dangerous.
Bruno says he finds that the feedback has been positive from Brick residents to substance-abuse testing and related lectures at schools.
“Whenever the subject is brought up, they say it seems to be a good thing. I haven’t heard anything negative about it,” said Bruno, who has been athletic director for both schools for the past two years. “The community understands what we’re trying to do.”