CIF Weighs Three Drug Proposals

The California Interscholastic Federation is considering three proposals to guard against the use of performance-enhancing drugs by high school athletes but has decided against imposing random drug tests.

One proposal would require all high school coaches to be certified in an education program on steroids and performance-enhancing dietary supplements. A second calls for student-athletes and parents to sign declarations promising that athletes would not use steroids unless prescribed for a medical condition.

The most hotly contested of the proposals, which are to be voted on in May, would ban coaches and other school employees from selling, distributing and promoting supplements marketed as “muscle-building.”

The regulations were proposed recently at a meeting of about 80 CIF representatives in Oakland, where they discussed the steroid scandal that has rocked Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the Olympics.

“BALCO has put everything into the forefront,” said Marie Ishida, the federation’s executive director. “It’s in your face now, something that has to be dealt with.”

Based on an annual nationwide study estimating that 3% of high school students use steroids, 20,000 to 30,000 California prep athletes had used the drugs, said Roger Blake, a CIF assistant executive director and Ishida’s point man on steroids and supplements.

“I can’t predict how our section will vote,” said Jim Staunton, Southern Section commissioner, “but I’d think you would have to be crazy to oppose this.”

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Football

Jeff Engilman, who coached for 29 years and guided Sylmar to two City Section titles, has ended his one-year retirement by accepting a position as freshman coach at West Ranch in the Santa Clarita Valley. Engilman is expected to stay for one season and move on to a varsity job at a new high school in Arleta in 2006.