Steroids in High School

November 19, 2007

At the age of 10, I would jump off the couch and chair to be like Superman, I would spin, put my hand in the air and scream to be like Michael Jackson. Nowadays, high school students do much more to be like their idols. Many high school athletes contribute to the steroid epidemic by taking steroids to emulate the abilities of their sports idols, others take steroids to look like the Hulk and Hercules. Steroids and sports can easily be compared to Napster and music. Both, steroids and Napster, are diminishing the industries they relate to, the future results are unclear for now, but initiatives need to be made.

Steroids are illegal substances that give athletes more testosterone and extra endurance to work out longer, which allows them to develop more muscles and more athletic abilities. Athletes who take steroids risk long term health for short term benefits. Steroids cause changes in the brain and body that may result in illnesses that lead to death or mood swings. Steroids not only affect the athlete that is using them but it affects the athletes around them. The athlete on steroids will take the spotlight away from other athletes when they are being recruited from college personnel because they have more muscles or they have more athletic ability.

As an athlete and a prospective professional in the sports industry, I am highly concerned with the future of sports. Steroids are vital to the future of sports because they are implemented by the younger generation of kids. It is most likely that when that generation reaches college they will still be using performance enhancing drugs. Soon they will reach up to the professionals and increase the amount of steroids that are being used in professional sports leagues. When I play volleyball and run track in high school, I often wonder if athletes on the opposing teams are abusing steroids because a lot of them do look