I definitely agree with you that mandatory testing is needed in sports.

I do ask you to be careful with your wording. To me, it sounds like you accused (basically convicted) the entire team of doing steroids. I know that you are too much of a profession to speak ill of H.S. kids like and no member of any Chatham coaching staff would ever speak of a true H.S. athlete in such a negative way.

Also, given your position as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, you should be very careful of lashing out at other schools. Maybe one day one of your kids will be involved in illegal drug use. Maybe not in high school, but in years after. You know as well as anyone, and you emphasis it your article, that the enhancement problem is there, always has been and, unfortunately always will be.

I wish you luck and only hope that 100% of your kids to not tamper or get involved with performance enhancing drugs.

mch:
if you're uncomfortable speaking the truth to kids you aren't doing them any favors, and if you aren't comfortable with my straight forward assesment of the situation, that's fine with me.

i'm not sure what you are referring to when you say i spoke of an athlete in a negative way.

i will not NOT lash out at other schools because someday someone at the school i'm associated with might be involved with drugs. that's a coward's approach. we do everything possible from an administrative and coaching standpoint to make sure this doesn't happen.

furthermore, the state of nj has implemented a drug policy that allows any teacher or coach to deal with a situation where they think a kid is on any kind of drug, that includes having the kid in question undergo a doctor's examination and drug test.

we do everything that we can to keep kids in the building and keep them away from the meatheads in the local gyms who fancy themselves experts because they're body builders. there will always be a small group of kids who will look to do the wrong thing no matter what awareness of education programs are in place.

what matters is that the school is as proactive as possible so that these instances can be minimized.

We're on the same page when it comes to keeping things clean and our kids healthy and on the right path.

Please understand that I want you, or any columnist, to speak his/her mind freely. I just ask that, as a coach, we try to use blanket statements. Only one student athlete was charged.

The papers and many people focused this on HP (mostly on the football program), when maybe the focus should be on where the majority of these people are from? Maybe the gym itself?

Although I think your column on this is a definite read, I would only hope that you were not intending to take a bold shot at the HP football program, or the other kids that are clean and work hard in the gym 6 days a week.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. You can find my email on my site.

All the best.

mch:
i can't get to your website from the url you list here.

i don't think i'm taking an unwarranted shot at anyone here, especially since i have first hand experience with the program.

and while the local gym can be scrutinized, the bottom line is that regardless of where this coach was affiliated, he is an HP grad, was on the staff and on the sidelines at games. so the program and the school are primarily to blame.

I believe the article is balanced and straigthfoward. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is rare to see someone with the boldness to call it as they see it. Kudos to you.

"I'm not saying the HP coaches knew that their kids were using steroids." Are you serious, in what newspaper article has it said that the HP players were using steroids? No where. The only person who has said that a member of the hanover park football team is using steroids is YOU. There was 1 player who was caught with GHB (who was a player that only appeared in 4 games and appeared on only the kickoff team in those 4 games). Now how do you have the audacity to say that this team took steroids? Why because a VOLUNTEER coach took and sold steroids. Does this mean that the volunteer coach sold them to the players. Absolutely not. "Based on what I heard and saw during the 2006 football season - especially compared to the 2004 and 2005 seasons- I wasn't surprised when I read about this scandal." So now your comparing this years team to prior teams. How about saying last years Chatham team was on steroids? Last years team was a hell of a lot bigger then this years team and the team from 2 years ago. Could it of been that just like chatham, hanover had a couple of down years. Is a team supposed to stay the same size all throughout high school. You get better players, you get stronger players. You completely are taking a stab at Hanover Park High Schools football program and are taking things out of context. Your saying that Hanover Parks players are using steroids when nobody on the team was accused or convicted or even allegedly took steroids. So if you want to say that you heard from the grapevines you be my guess. And to compare Hanovers team this year to the prior 2 seasons is ludacris. So if someone from last years chatham team got caught wit GHB then this year i could of wrote on my blog, WOW! this years chatham team is a lot smaller then last years who went to the finals, and that team that went to the finals was a lot bigger then the year before that. Please dont say players are using steroids when NOBODY is.

thanks for writing and for expressing your opinion, and doing so in a reasonable way considering the emotional nature of the subject.

you can make all the accusations that you choose with regard to other programs, but the bottom line is that the coach at HP was busted as one of the major players in a major steroid ring, and a 17-year old member of the team was listed as one of the 16 people listed as having been arrested and charged.

over the years i have heard rumors of several local teams - both good and bad - being on steroids. this is the only instance where a member of a coaching staff - in any capacity - was arrested for being part of a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute steroids and other drugs. it isn't taking potshots when critical comments are made that are based on the issues at hand.

i agree that it's terrible that kids have to be under the cloud of suspicion because of the actions of perhaps a few people. unfortunately, this is what is going to happen in a case like this.

thanks again for reading and writing.

People keep wording it as a coach. It was a VOLUNTEER coach. There was not one time when this coach could be with the kids alone. Not to even mention that the VOLUNTEER coach didnt come to practice everyday because he was a VOLUNTEER. Lets not forget that the 17 year old charged in the matter was a personal friend of the coach outside of school. They lifted weights together. The kid who bought the GHB bought it for sleeping purposes to help let him sleep at night. You heard rumors? I hear rumors every year that this kid is on steroids or that kid is on steroids. According to your previous posts, you say that Hanover Parks gameplan was to pound the ball down the opponents throat whether they liked it or not cause they felt they were bigger and stronger. Let me ask you this, is that not West essex gameplan year in and year out every year? If someone got caught on that team any year would you be saying the same thing. Is it also possible that maybe Hanover had 3 good running backs and were a ground oriented team rather than a passing team?

we agree that rumors are abundant. i also think we can agree that no other local team has had a coach - vlounteer or otherwise - busted as part of a steroid ring, and has been accused of selling to a kid on the team.

i totally sympathize with you. your team's achievements have been tainted by this situation. i hope for the sake of everyone that the damage is limited to as few people as possible.

Thats true and i agree with that as well but the fact that in your article, not the comments section you have stated that Hanover park football players are on steroids. And you also state that you walked to shake hands with coach and you knew from the look of us? If you agree that only one player got caught, then why are you saying that there are players on the team who take steroids when not even the kid who got caught was caught with steroids. Let alone say that you knew by the look of the team.

you think that just because you're a "strength and conditioning coach" you can tell a team is on steroids?
It is so unprofessional to lash out at a HIGH SCHOOL team like this. It's not our fault you were 2-8 this season.

franciosa:
i respect that you disagree with my position, as you have done so in a fair manner. i'm just sharing my thoughts on a subject that i have been covering professionally and otherwise for over 20 years.

i haven't brought in the opinions of others, or written an anonymous hatchet job loaded with heresay; i've put my name on a piece that i stand by and can defend. as i said, of course you and others are free to disagree. with this kind of subject i EXPECTED to get a lot of disagreements.

it comes with the territory.

and as unfortunate as it is, when this kind of scandal hits people will wonder/think or flat out claim that others were using as well. i don't say that everyone was on steroids, but that you have to wonder how many kids were tempted, or took advantage of this supply. that's also what comes with the territory.

You said in your article that you shook the hands of the coach in question. So to your belief you think that most of the kids were on steroids. The supply was not offered to the team. The 17 year old who was caught was not manufacturing anything or selling anything. He was simply a buyer. And he was not a buyer of steroids. He was a buyer of GHB. Now i am not saying that is good or healthy at all. I completely agree he should be penalized. But to say that you looked at the whole team in question is insane. Its not like the kids hung out with Cuppari outside of football practices trying to buy steroids. Like i said in a previous comment, the 17 year old was a personal friend of Cupparis outside of school. I just think the article is unfair to read if your not even an athlete at hanover park. Even if your just a member of the school, you feel insulted. And to think that your kids were cheated in the game against Hanover is just a complete shame.

Based on today's laws, dealing with steroids in almost any fashion is an illegal activity. We should keep in mind that there is almost always more than one side to a story but only one side is usually heard. What a shame that this incident has been reported in such a fashion that the community, school and the alleged participants will pay a long lasting price even if the case proves to be largely unfounded. Unfortunately it seems to be more interesting to report and read bad news. If the facts of this case prove less damaging, would they be reported with equal zeal? The young men in question may well have participated in some form of illegal activity with steroids but the case seems to have been tried in the news with a guilty outcome before reaching the courts. Perhaps the bigger question is the privilege and responsibility of the news media to report fairly and accurately. This story was reported in such a way that the reader of printed news or viewer of TV news is led, with the help of dramatic reporting techniques, into thinking the negative accusations are fact. This happens at the national and international levels as well. I believe most people are fairly intelligent and do not need to be nudged, however how subtly and sublimely into a preconceived notion of the truth. The news should be reported, not manufactured or colored. Perhaps equal time and reporting space should be offered to those representing the other side of this as well as many other stories.

we dominated your team this year. you guys are a joke and we're gonna kill you guys again this year. so keep thinking we are on steroids. i'll make sure i hurt everyone on your team severely, thanks clown, see you in the fall

i think it's a shame that your team was so bad this year you have to write about our team and question our success. i also think it's a shame that after graduating 18 of our 22 starters, we're still gonna abuse your team. you being their strength and conditioning coach, i highly advise you to find some "sauce" for your team because whatever it is you have them doing over there clearly isn't working!

I would like to appologize for my last two comments. After reading the article, I was heated and at the time it felt like the right thing to say. Looking back at it now, I realize it was stupid and I wish I could take back what I said. I respect Chatham and their football program, and wish them the best of luck this year. Our porgram works extremely hard year in and year out, and we deserve where we got last year. When you accuse us of something that isn't true, I defend my team and i stand by my team, it's just in my nature. I'm sorry again for what I've said and wish Chatham the best this year.

Sal,

Interesting piece. Israel generally does not have high school sports programs, at least in Jerusalem and vicinity, so issues like steroids on the team do not seem to arise. But when discussing this with my own sons, my youngest made this comment:

"Anytime a kid represents a school, you should expect steroids. You know, try to please everybody?"

Out of the mouths of babes....

"Pleasing everybody" shoots to the heart of the issue and is reflected in comments #15 & #16 above. The kid who wrote them (and the rest of his team) is trying to please a whole crowd of people - and it ain't easy...

Just some thoughts from a third of the world away.

Shabbat Shalom,
Reuven