FAIRFIELD, Conn.— According to a national poll released today by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute, a large majority of Americans surveyed, 87.3%, suggested they strongly supported (67.3%) or somewhat supported (19.7%) random testing of High School athletes for steroid use. Another 9.3% said they were somewhat opposed (3.3%) or strongly opposed (6.0%). Some 3.3% were undecided.

According to the University's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Don Cook, “The only way to get your arms around the problem of steroid use among athletes is to test them. We have a culture of youths today that's more sophisticated in a negative way—they don't think of the consequences but only the shortest distance to fame. Unfortunately, they sometimes think that steroid use is the way to get there. The benefit of testing high school athletes is that they'll learn not to use steroids at 16 or 17 rather than later—and colleges in turn will inherit clean students who are less apt to use drugs.”

This issue came to the forefront this week as Connecticut State Representative and House Leader Robert Ward (R) proposed an amendment to an existing bill that calls for a pilot program to randomly test 2,000 high school athletes for steroid use. The amendment has been met with support from the Connecticut Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC).

EXPERTS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT 

• Don Cook, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Sacred Heart University
• Jerry Lindsley, Director, Sacred Heart University Polling Institute

To speak with these experts, please contact Funda Alp at 203-396-8241 or alpf@sacredheart.edu

# # #

How the Poll Was Conducted
The Sacred Heart University Polling Institute completed 1,000 interviews with residents nationwide. All phone interviews were conducted between April 20-28, 2005. The sample was generated proportional to population contribution in all fifty states. Statistically, a sample of 1,000 completed telephone interviews represents a margin for error of +/-3.0% at a 95% confidence level. Margins for error grow as subgroups of the sample are viewed separately. The steroid testing question was completed among 299 respondents nationwide with an associated margin for error of +/-6.0%.

About Sacred Heart University Sacred Heart University is the first Catholic university in the United States to be led and staffed by lay people. Located in Fairfield, Connecticut, SHU is the second-largest Catholic university in New England. With over 5,700 undergraduate and graduate students, SHU has experienced two-fold enrollment growth during the past ten years due to outstanding academic programs in business, education, liberal arts and health sciences. SHU is a Division-I member of the NCAA.

Visit our website at: www.sacredheart.edu.
Contact: Funda Alp (alpf@sacredheart.edu)

Previous Page    Back to May 2005    Next Page