Ashland University implemented a drug-testing policy midway through the 2015-16 academic year to be sure that its student-athletes were not using recreational or performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). 

Despite not being required by the NCAA to have its own testing program, athletic director Al King said AU wanted to have something in place that could help student-athletes and identify drug use by athletes.

Ashland partnered with Ohio Health to help run its program after realizing the complexities involved with a drug-testing program, according to King.

The NCAA’s website states that its drug-testing program began in the 1980s “so that no one participant might have an artificially induced advantage . . . be pressured to use chemical substances in order to remain competitive and to safeguard the health and safety of participants.”

In 1999, The National Center for Drug Free Sport, Inc. began handling the administration of drug testing for the NCAA involving all NCAA sports and all of its member institutions.

The NCAA’s drug-testing process involves collecting a urine sample and then sending it to a laboratory to be analyzed to see if the sample tests positive for stimulants, anabolic agents, alcohol and beta blockers, diuretics and other masking agents, street/illicit drugs, peptide hormones and analogues, anti-estrogens and beta-2 agonists, according to the NCAA’s 2016-17 drug testing program booklet.

Its testing is year-round (except for stimulants and street/illicit drugs) and includes summer months. Additional testing is done for teams that make the NCAA championships and postseason bowl games.

Student-athletes are selected for testing on the basis of sport, position, competitive ranking, financial aid status, playing time, directed testing, an NCAA-approved random selection or any of these combinations.

Ashland’s drug-testing program checks for performance-enhancing drugs (including dietary supplements), socially used drugs (street drugs, prescription medications) and alcohol and tobacco, according to AU’s athletics website, www.goashlandeagles.com.

A percentage of athletes from each team are randomly selected for testing by Ohio Health a minimum of one time per semester and possibly up to three times.

The website states that a key component of its testing program involves educating its student-athletes. 

This is done through providing an annual explanation of the Drug Testing and Education and Testing Program to student-athletes, handing out information regarding the use and abuse of drugs as well as the effects of such use and abuse and offering athletes resources to further information about NCAA policies and dietary supplements.

“Specific to AU and how we are testing for PEDs, I think we are doing a fine job,” said Zach Bernhard, who is president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. 

SAAC works as a middleman between Ashland’s athletes and athletic department, and handles any concerns that either side may have.

Bernhard added that since SAAC started a little under two years ago, they have not had any issues involving an athlete using PEDs.

AU football coach Lee Owens, who just finished his 13th season at the helm of Ashland, believes it is important for athletes to receive a unified message regarding PEDs.

“It’s important that we work through the trainer, that we work through the strength coach, that we work with the athletic administration, and that we are all able to give our athletes the same message,” Owens said.

Owens said that he and his coaching staff educate their players by having the trainer talk to them about what substances are banned and what issues can arise from these substances.

He adds that one of the most important things his staff can do is set realistic and safe expectations for the weight and strength they hope their players will gain.

“When we send a message to our athletes, they listen to every word that we say and they read a lot into it,” Owens said. “If you are telling an athlete you have to be so big to play, and you leave that open ended, you are basically challenging the athlete to do whatever it takes to get there. And I’m careful that we don’t do that.”

King believes the athletic department can continue improving its methods for educating its athletes about PEDs.

“We believe with Ohio Health we have a chance to do a lot more,” King said. “Part of our agreement with Ohio Health working with us is we get certain speakers. And we can bring in speakers that can talk.”

Mary Wilfert, the associate director of the NCAA Sport Science Institute, has administered the NCAA drug-education and drug-testing programs since 1999. She said through e-mail that drug education is a shared responsibility between the member institution and the national office. 

“Student-athletes are provided information on NCAA policy, processes and consequences of testing positive, and a resource for the student-athlete and his or her institutional staff to submit inquiries about supplements and medications,” Wilfert said about the national office’s role.

“Member institutions are in a position to directly influence student-athletes by setting clear expectations, educating on health and performance best practices and enforcing consequences for violation of policy,” Wilfert added.

Although AU provides resources informing its athletes about dietary supplements, it is still the individual’s responsibility to talk with someone who is knowledgeable about supplements before taking them.

“Any time an athlete is thinking of taking a supplement they need to reach out to someone who knows the area,” said Dr. David Vanata, the director of dietetics at Ashland University. “Not just go on a website that basically goes over bodybuilding and things like that.”

“They could go to their coaches initially, and then the coaches can refer them out to other individuals,” he added. “They need to really find the individual and resources they can trust. That’s the key. And we have them here at AU.”

The biggest risk involving PEDs is that someone can never know everything they contain because the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate them, according to Vanata.

“That’s really where the problems have come in,” he said. “When athletes are taking some of these types of supplements they don’t realize they are getting other types of compounds in there.”

Vanata believes an athlete might choose to use PEDs because of competition. 

“If you are fighting for a position on a team, everything makes a difference,” he said. “That’s where people start getting to that point of what are they willing to risk in order to become the starting player on that team . . . That’s where people might make that decision to do anything to get to that level. Even if it borders on illegal.”

So with all of the information that is available to student-athletes about PEDs, how does the NCAA and its member institutions really make an impressionable impact?

“There’s two things,” King said. “How do you get [the information] to the student-athletes, and then how do you make it make an impression?”

King said the athletic department continually talks to its athletes about PEDs, but he feel they can never talk to them enough about it. 

“We are still searching,” he said. “One of the things I feel good about is we have four athletic trainers now here, plus two others that we brought in from Ohio Health. In the past when we had two or three, it was harder for them to sit and talk to somebody. We can do more of that now.”