The program consists of classroom, weight-training, and parent information components. Together, they give student athletes the knowledge and skills to resist steroid use and achieve their athletic goals in more effective, healthier ways, he says. In a typical session, the football team is split into squads of six or seven students, with student squad leaders conducting the sessions and teaching most of the intervention, according to Dr. Goldberg. Coaches, who have a substantial influence on these student athletes, also play an important role on the steroid prevention team, Dr. Goldberg says. Coaches introduce topics and wrap up each session, he explains.
Coaches move from squad to squad and introduce a topic, such as the effects of anabolic steroids.
Then squad leaders take over and initiate an action game that incorporates the topic. For example, players may toss a football to each other as they answer questions about problems that stem from steroid use. Therefore, several games pit squads against each other to try and earn the most points for correct answers about weight training, nutrition, and steroids. They all are drugs used by adolescent girls seeking to stay thin, says Dr. Linn Goldberg of Oregon Health Sciences University. The use of these drugs, which often goes hand in hand with eating disorders, is particularly prominent among adolescent girls engaged in athletic activities ranging from track and field, soccer, basketball, and volleyball to school dance and drill teams, Dr. Goldberg says.