Five more UNT athletes fail drug tests

by Ben Gooding of North Texas Daily , Keith MacPherson of North Texas Daily

UNT drug testing records show that five student athletes from various teams tested positive in addition to the 15 football players whose positive results made recent headlines.

Information acquired through Texas Open Records Act shows that the UNT compliance and training departments tested nine student athletes involved in six other sports this semester.

One member of the men's basketball team tested positive. Two members of the track and field team tested positive, and two of the three men's golf team players tested positive.

"We are in charge of a lot of things with our team in terms of helping their academics and overall well-being," track and field head coach Rick Watkins said. "We will do what we feel helps them."

The women's basketball, soccer and softball teams each tested one athlete, but none of the women tested positive.

"Any of my team could have randomly been picked for the drug test," women's basketball head coach Shanice Stephens said. "Fortunately, the person they picked was clean."

NT policy and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protect further testing details, including the athletes' names. NT officials confirmed that none of the athletes who tested positive this fall have been retested yet.

NCAA Regulations

So far this year, the NCAA has tested 54 NT athletes, including 38 from the football team, nine from the track and field team, and four from both the women's soccer and softball teams.

Only one of those tests, which was conducted on a football player last spring, came back positive. The athlete was declared ineligible to compete in the NCAA, but NT athletics director Rick Villarreal said the positive test "had no effect on this year's team."

Joe Dykstra, NT's swimming and diving head coach, said he believes coaches should take advantage of both NCAA and NT drug screenings.

"If I had a strong suspicion of my team, I would probably conduct random drug testing," he said. "Of course, everyone on our team - and all student athletes - knows they are subject to random testing. They sign off on it every year."

The NCAA has had a drug-deterrence program for more than 30 years, said Mary Wilfert, NCAA associate director for health and safety.

"The NCAA drug-testing programs work in conjunction with strong written policy and effective drug education," she said. "The NCAA believes testing is necessary to protect the athletes' health and safety and to ensure athletes are not using performance-enhancing drugs to gain a competitive advantage."

The NCAA list of banned substances includes stimulants, anabolic agents, substances banned for specific sports, diuretics, "street drugs," peptide hormones and analogues, and anti-estrogens. The list of drugs banned by the association is more vast than those banned by federal law, she said.

"Historically, about 1 percent of the total drug tests conducted for all banned substances are positive," Wilfert said. "Refusal to take an NCAA drug test results in loss of eligibility."

The NCAA spends about $4 million each year on its national drug-testing program, and it provides more than $1 million to NCAA colleges and universities for funding assistance, she said.

A Coach's Role

Head coach Todd Dodge requested the testing of all football players on his active roster - 86 student athletes - between Sept. 24 and Oct. 15. Fifteen tested positive for drugs. Dodge said his goal was not to identify performance-enhancing drug use, but recreational.

In a press conference on Oct. 28, he said he had suspicions about athletes on his team using "street drugs" in their free time, and his reason for testing them was to help his athletes stay away from recreational drug use.

"I have been in coaching for 23 years now," Dodge said. "I have a pretty good intuition about things going on with my team. When my assistant coaches tend to agree with my intuition, I feel like I need to do something about it."

When it comes to the well-being of student athletes, NT coaches agreed that drug testing is a valuable tool.

"We use drug testing in case something is awry," Stephens said. "In situations, I really haven't needed it, but I'm glad it is there if something would happen."

Watkins said the role of a coach extends beyond what athletes do on the playing field, and drug testing is a way to make sure the athletes' careers are pointed in the right direction.

"As coaches we are going to do anything we can to help our kids be the best person and athlete they can be," he said.

Another thing a coach can do is keep a tight-knit family environment within his or her team, Dykstra said, but even that won't always keep an athlete from succumbing to temptation.

"We do have a good family atmosphere and a good internal support network with our squad," Dykstra said. "That being said, college-aged kids are college-aged kids, and some make mistakes."

Drug Treatment

A student athlete's first drug offense lands him or her in drug counseling at the NT Health and Wellness Center, according to NT policy.

An athlete's first session includes a brief intervention to create goals to help them reach a healthy point, health resource coordinator David Mumaugh said.

"For some people, the goals are to develop abstinence," he said. "For others, it's to smoke pot more healthily - whatever is going to work best for them."

Mumaugh said the center is a client-centered institution and doesn't always ask for students to quit.

"We don't say things like, 'You have to stop smoking pot, or you're going to die,'" he said. "We try to avoid that thinking because that isn't progressive, and it isn't going to help our client."

Depending on the student's intervention and personal goals, athletes may need to attend anywhere from two to eight sessions. Once athletes finish their sessions, the center gives them a record of service form to show they have completed the required counseling, Mamaugh said.

"Coaches have called me and asked what to expect," he said. "They don't want to blindly make a referral."

Failure to complete the counseling may result in additional screenings. Also, according to NT policy, continued offenses increase the severity of punishment. After the fourth positive drug test, an athlete is permanently suspended from the team.

Because of the recently failed drug tests, Mumaugh has seen many athletes in the past month and said he feels encouraged by the results he has seen so far.

"They are all really engaged and active," he said. "They are ready to make changes in their lives so they can keep doing what they love."