Positive Action : Workman, Hopes to Start a Drug-Testing Program at OCC

For most community college coaches, drug testing is a luxury their already financially strapped programs cannot afford.

But for Bill Workman, the new football coach at Orange Coast College, drug testing is a necessity--and not necessarily an expensive one.

Workman, who replaced Dick Tucker in March, said he will soon submit a proposal to Orange Coast President Donald R. Bronsard that seeks permission to establish a drug-testing program for the Pirate football team and, possibly, for the other Orange Coast athletic programs.

Workman would not reveal all the specifics of his proposal but said it will be similar to the program he helped implement in 1985 at Edison High School, where he was one of the Southern Section’s most successful coaches for 13 years before joining Orange Coast.

Edison was the first high school in the state to enact a drug-testing program. Since then, several schools--including Banning, Fontana, Fallbrook and Coronado--have followed suit.

Budgets are tight at most community colleges, and Orange Coast is no exception. But Workman is confident that the cost of testing can be cut significantly if he can find local hospitals to conduct the tests for a reduced fee of about $20 per test, just the way he did at Edison. Depending on the number of tests, what they are designed to detect and the hospital performing them, costs can be as high as $150 per urinalysis.

“Athletes are part of society, and society has a drug problem,” said Workman, who still has hopes of establishing a program before the start of the season in September. “We need testing, not because it will help us catch the kids, but because it will give them an excuse to deal with peer pressure and say no.

“Four-year schools all test, and a lot of high schools test. And now it’s time for community colleges to test, too.”

Coaches and athletic directors at Orange County’s five other community colleges do not agree. Fullerton College is exploring the possibility of starting a drug-testing program, but, like Golden West, Rancho Santiago, Saddleback and Cypress, it has no plans for testing now.

Some officials, such as Golden West Athletic Director Tom Hermstad, say education is a more effective deterrent to drug use than testing.

“We’ve never done this before, but this fall we’re going to put all our teams together in one big group and talk to them about drugs and let them know we think using them is unacceptable behavior,” said Hermstad, who teaches health at Golden West. “The kids need direction; they need to be told that getting plastered isn’t right.

“Testing won’t accomplish that--it’s no panacea. Now, if I owned a professional sports team, I would test my players. But as the athletic director at a community college, I don’t think I should subject my kids to it. On this level, I think my No. 1 responsibility is educate against the use of drugs.”

For Roger Wilson, men’s athletic director at Rancho Santiago, cost is the main obstacle to drug testing.

“From what I’ve read and heard, testing is extremely expensive,” Wilson said. “And, for all that money, the tests are not altogether accurate, so it’s limited what it can do for you.

“We’re going to just try and educate our players through our coaches.”

At Saddleback, the subject of drug testing has never even been brought up, according to assistant football coach Don Butcher.

“There’s been no talk about that here, none at all,” Butcher said. “That’s because we’ve never had a drug incident here--no one on our teams have ever been arrested or anything like that.

“At the beginning of the season, Ken (Swearingen, head coach) just tells our football players his position on drugs, and that’s it.” Swearingen is teaching a football seminar in Finland and was unavailable.

Hal Sherbeck, Fullerton’s football coach and athletic director, said he would like to have a drug-testing program and has instructed trainer Bill Chambers to make inquiries of four-year schools that have testing. But Sherbeck said he thinks his school cannot afford it.

“We would like to test, if agencies would do it for us,” he said.

Sherbeck always has made anti-drug education a priority, but he will emphasize it even more this fall.

In May, the Orange County district attorney’s office filed criminal conspiracy charges against seven men, including Fullerton player James Guy Joseph, who allegedly were involved in the illegal manufacture and distribution of anabolic steroids. Joseph is on the Fullerton College team pending the outcome of the trial. No trial date has been set.

“The message will be pounded into their heads,” Sherbeck said. “We’re going to spend a lot of time talking to our players, and we’ll have our team doctor speak to them without the coaches around so they can ask questions and talk freely.

“But for now, that’s all we can do.”

Workman says that’s not enough.

He felt the same way at Edison, where he worked for 1 1/2 years to set up the Chargers’ drug testing.

It worked this way:

Last fall, all of Edison’s approximately 90 players were asked if they would submit to a urinalysis. About 90% agreed.

Each week during the season, a season in which Edison shared the Southern Section Big Five Conference championship with Long Beach Poly, five players were selected at random for urinalysis by a committee of the boys’ and girls’ athletic directors and three members of the community, whose identities were kept confidential.

When the tests were started, each urinalysis--which checked for the presence of cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines (Valium and similar drugs)--cost $109. Because of much higher costs, the tests did not check for anabolic steroids.

The hospitals, including Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, progressively lowered the cost through the season as a public service. When Workman left Edison in March, the cost per test was down to $17.

“At that cost, we could raise the money we need easily,” Workman said. “It’s idealistic to say this, but money is not going to stop us (from having a drug-testing program) here.”

Workman said a program at Orange Coast would differ from Edison’s in a few ways. First, it may be mandatory because the players are adults. Edison’s program is voluntary because the players are minors.

In addition, the way a player who tests positively at Orange Coast is treated may be different.

When an Edison player tested positively, his parents--no one else, not even Workman--were notified and expected to deal with the problem.

“That won’t work on the community college level because I have players as old as 28 here,” he said. “Obviously, parents haven’t had a lot to do with the lives of some of the players on this level for quite a while.”

Bronsard said he is receptive to a drug-testing program, and that he would consider recommending it not only for the football team but for the entire Orange Coast athletic program.

“I would think that what’s good for the football team would be good for our other programs,” he said.

Bronsard is only one of many who must approve Workman’s proposal before it can be submitted to the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees. Athletic Director Tucker, Dean of Physical Education Susan Brown, Dean of Instruction Lee Bradley and Chancellor David A. Brownell would also have to approve it.