Stemming Steroid Use

Billy Ajello, a high school baseball player from Plano, Texas, flew to Los Angeles last week with his mother to participate in an important panel discussion entitled, “Sports, Drugs & Teens.”

Ajello would have preferred to be hanging out back home with one of his best friends, Taylor Hooton, a senior pitcher who was a member of a Bible study group. But Hooton, 17, killed himself on July 15, and a medical examiner’s toxicology report revealed anabolic steroids in his urine.

Hooton’s father, Don, a first cousin of former Dodger pitcher Burt Hooton, gave a presentation to students and parents at Plano West High last month, blaming steroids for his son’s “irrational step.”

Ajello agreed to join the panel discussion at Staples Center despite the possibility of recriminations from classmates not thrilled about exposure to the issue. His motivation was to sound the alarm that steroids are being used by teenagers who don’t understand the consequences of their actions.

“The kid always had a smile on his face and he’d be the last kid you’d think [this would] happen to,” Ajello said. “He wanted to have the good body and be big and strong. He fell into depression and hit rock bottom. He decided life wasn’t worth it.”

Ajello said Hooton told him he was taking steroids, but a shroud of secrecy combined with the illusion of invincibility kept everyone silent.

“They don’t seem to care what’s going to happen to them when they’re 50 or 60, just what can happen when they’re in high school,” he said.

Don Hooton said his son admitted taking steroids two months before his death. He had gone from weighing 170 pounds to more than 200 pounds. He believes his son’s depression was the result of steroid use.

He tried to alert parents in his presentation in Plano as to clues that their children might be abusing steroids.

Do their faces look bloated? Have they gotten really “big” all of a sudden? Are their wrists swollen? Are there spurts of rage or sudden and exaggerated mood swings? Have any unmarked pills or syringes been found?

Hooton said he reared three children and never violated their space.

“[But] all of the signs that would have told us what was going on with Taylor were hidden in various places in his room,” Hooton told the parents.

Teenagers using steroids is a concern parents and coaches everywhere must take seriously.”I don’t think people are making the change in their lives that they should,” Ajello said. “This is a real problem going on in high school sports.”