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Kids Using Steroids
 There are not a lot of studies on the use of steroids or other dangerous performance-enhancing drugs.
Recently, a news paper in Texas conducted an investigation into the use of steroids by high-school athletes were it was learned that not only did the coaches know of the use by their athletes, but the parents as well looked the other way. One federally funded study in 1999 found 2.7 percent of 10th-graders reported having used steroids at some point, up from 2 percent the previous year, according to figures from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 
In the past five years, Luks said, he has seen an increase in the number of young athletes he suspects are using steroids. They suffer a variety of sports injuries, such as fractures, ligament ruptures and shoulder dislocations, but seem to have a uniform appearance — huge muscles that often lack the definition that come when gained the slow way. "They look like they've been blown up like a balloon," Luks said.
Dr. Patricia Dobbins-Sullivan, an internist on staff at the Recovery Center, a drug-and-alcohol treatment program at Nyack Hospital, said steroid use is particularly harmful to young people.
The drugs can cause adolescents to stop growing, resulting in short stature. In males, it can cause impotence and reduced sperm count and baldness. It can cause women to develop masculine features.
"Anyone who uses it is really paying a heavy price," Dobbins-Sullivan said.
Battling the use of steroids and other dangerous performance-enhancers among high school athletes begins with education, said Harry Peterson, Mamaroneck High School's football coach, but doesn't end there.
Concern over the possibility that some athletes might be tempted to experiment with performance enhancers, Peterson said, was one factor in the school's decision two years ago to hire a local company that specializes in high-level athletic training.
"I think we offer the kids a viable route with the proper instruction for them to reach the goal they want," Peterson said yesterday. "If you have kids working out at a fitness club, you don't know what they are doing."
There are many pressures on students to turn to steroids and other performance enhancers: personal performance, peer pressure, school tradition and the possibility of a college scholarship.
Finally, sometimes the pressure comes from parents.
Three years ago, Small said, he received a phone call from the mother of a 10-year-old. The mother, Small recalled, said her son kept losing in tennis finals.
"She said, 'The other kids were bigger than him. Can you give him steroids?' " Small said. "She wasn't interested when I suggested coming in to talk about nutrition."
Drew Voight
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