SDSU Reconsiders Suspension as Tests to Be Held Today
Drug testing of San Diego State’s track and field athletes will be administered today, and a source close to the situation said Thursday that Fred Miller, SDSU athletic director, is considering rescinding the suspension of the team in time for Saturday’s Choc Sportsman Track meet at SDSU.
The source said Miller discussed the possibility of allowing the athletes to compete in Saturday’s meet when he met Thursday with coaches Dixon Farmer and Jim Cerveny and the Aztec captains. The source said Miller would make a decision by this afternoon, though today’s urinalysis won’t be available for about a week. If Miller does lift the suspension, however, it would be a surprise.
Said Miller: “My reaction to the meeting was that we had a perfectly good conversation. They (team captains) had some issues to discuss which we will sleep on.”
By announcing today’s start of testing, Miller put an end to a procedural foul-up that surfaced Wednesday afternoon when Dr. Don Catlin, the director of pharmacology at the UCLA Medical School, said he was unaware that he was expected to test the athletes for anabolic steroids and recreational drugs.
Miller had announced that the UCLA laboratory, the International Olympic Committee-accredited facility in North America, would be handling the analysis before Catlin had agreed to do the work.
“We’ve got the procedural problems corrected with UCLA and they’ve been extremely supportive,” Miller said. “Dr. Catlin is coming down here (today). This puts us right back on schedule.
“We had said that we hoped to get our athletes back on the track by next week and that’s what we still hope to do.”
Miller refused to say where the testing would be administered.
Miller’s announcement Monday to suspend the men’s and women’s track teams came in the wake of a controversy that surfaced last week when some present and former Aztecs said they received steroids from an assistant coach, Kent Pagel, who has since been reassigned within the athletic department. Pagel’s reassignment, Miller said, had nothing to do with the athletes’ allegations.
The SDSU Department of Public Safety is handling the investigation dealing with those accusations although no official charges have been filed. Scott Hoth, an Aztec hammer thrower and shotputter who said that Pagel supplied him with steroids last year, said he will be interviewed by campus police today.
Hoth, who along with discus thrower Tom Silva, was pulled from practice by Miller last Tuesday and told to undergo drug testing, at first said Miller didn’t tell him why he was singled out.
In an interview with a Times’ reporter Thursday night, however, Hoth changed his story. Hoth said during a meeting between he, Silva, attorney Alden J. Fulkerson and Miller last Thursday that the athletic director told him Pagel had targetted Hoth and Silva.
“My lawyer said (to Miller), ‘I want to know who’s accusing my boys of taking steroids,’ ” Hoth said. “Miller said, ‘An assistant track coach who is a reliable source accused them.’ Then, my lawyer said, ‘Well I want to know what assistant track coach. If you’re going to accuse my boys you better tell me who’s doing the accusing.’ Miller looked at him, and said, ‘Yes, it’s Kent Pagel.’ And my lawyer said, ‘Thanks.’ ”
Miller, reached for comment about Hoth’s latest remarks said: “No comment.”
Contributing to this story was Times’ reporter Steve Lowery.