This is part three in a series reprinted from our news partners at The Pilot News on performance enhancing supplements and their use by local student athletes. Plymouth Community Schools are considering a ban on the products on school property, and today’s installment looks at some administrator and coach reactions to the products.
PLYMOUTH – As Plymouth Community Schools contemplate a ban of performance enhancing dietary supplements, the thoughts of administrators and coaches have been solicited to help in that final decision.
Doctors and the training staff around the county have come out in favor of the ban more as a form of education and protection than “policing” supplements. The concern from their point of view is the vast number of products available over the counter with no real way of knowing exactly what those products contain.
Health staff want parents to be fully aware of what their student athletes are putting in their bodies – positive or negative – and want educated decisions to be made about what products to use or stay away from and how they should be used safely. In particular on the list for trainers are the “pre-workout” products and energy drinks that contain sometimes dangerous amounts of caffeine.
One school system that has heeded the warning is Bremen.
“We do not allow performance supplements to be taken on school grounds or in the presence of the coaching staff nor do we encourage their use,” said Troy Holmes, Bremen High School athletic director. “Given the complexity and the number of enhancers on the market, it is impossible for our staff or students to determine the safety of supplements.”
Holmes says that Bremen schools also heed the warnings of training staff that each user may have a different experience with any given supplement.
“Whether or not they are deemed safe, individuals will react differently to supplements especially youth and those who may have a pre-existing condition,” he said. “We leave decisions about their use to a family and their physician.”
“The Taylor Hooton Foundation has presented information about the risks of appearance and performance enhancing drugs to Bremen High School,” said Holmes. “The truth about their potential dangers really opened the eyes of students, parents and staff. Unfortunately, students are bombarded with these products and often use them without all the facts.”
Plymouth Athletic Director Roy Benge also had the concern of how the supplements were shared from student to student.
“These things are available over the counter and our athletes are sharing them,” he said. “We’ve got no way of knowing what’s in any of these products. If you have a prescription from a doctor you have to take every day, you have to go to the nurse’s office to take it. I really don’t think we want the gym to become a dispensary for these products.”
Plymouth weight training instructor Curt Samuelson agrees for the high school athlete.
“At this level, for a high school athlete, it’s just an unnecessary risk,” he said. “If you are an elite Olympic athlete where a hundredth of a second might be the difference – maybe some supplements can help them. They’re called ‘supplements’ which to me means you’re already doing everything else – nutrition, sleep, working hard in the weight room – these things are in addition once you are already doing all that. I know our guys think they’re working hard in the weight room, and they are, but no where near where a world class athlete does. At this level it seems to me like just somebody looking for a short cut.”
In the weight room with Plymouth’s athletes everyday, his concerns is similar to those of the training staff.
“There is no way to know what’s in that can or bottle,” Samuelson said. “Athletes at the high levels personally know the doctors and coaches and suppliers they can trust to give them a product that is what they say it is and they don’t trust anybody else. As far as I can tell there’s no regulation on any of these products. Our high school kids have no background or knowledge of what any of these things are or how they are going to affect them. They just saw an ad that said it would make them stronger.”
“I was at a national conference and went to a talk on supplements and the speaker made a great point,” he said. “In the view of these companies, it has nothing to do with enhancing your performance and everything to do with money. None of these products come in plain packages — they’re all in bright colors like a billboard. There’s a reason for that.”
“I think it is important for our high school athletes to remember they are high school athletes and not professional athletes,” said Ryan Bales, head basketball coach at Plymouth High School. “I believe that if our athletes get proper amounts of sleep, eat healthy, and stay hydrated they will reach their goals in the weight room assuming they are committed in there. I feel that our athletes can gain a competitive edge by enduring struggle through hard work and by remaining patient with their results as compared to using supplements to gain an edge or speed up the process.”
“I would support whatever the school decides, but I think a key in all of this is getting everyone on board with things,” Bales said. “We can have the school on board with this, but it will not matter if families are not involved too because players spend just as much time at home as they do in school and at practices or workouts. I think this becomes difficult especially considering the fact that most of these supplements are legal and sold in stores just about anywhere. I think it is valuable to educate and bring awareness and not view this as a ban or a punishment. The goal of this should be proactive and focus on the importance of this topic as it relates to our overall health.”
In the final installment of this series we’ll talk to local athletes, outside of the high school and college sports environment, who have continued to use weight training as their fitness routine and find out about their experiences and advice on supplements.
