Ross Metheny is a big time college football prospect. A young man, who this time next year, could very well be signing an athletic scholarship. Yet the Sherando quarterback points specifically to the ultra competitive world of high school recruiting, as a reason some prep players might choose to take performance enhancing drugs.
"I think recruiting and that sort of thing has evolved so much over the years thats its kinda, you know, getting a little out of control. You know, with these ESPN things and everyone has these cameras in teenagers faces and everything. Without a doubt the temptation can be there." Says Metheny.
National surveys put high school steroid use at anywhere between one and four percent of student athletes. Numbers small enough that steroids aren't the main concern when it comes to performance enhancers. Instead it is the wide open and unregulated industry of supplements.
"Anything in excess could be bad. Even normal vitamins, in huge doses can be toxic. A lot of things that are labeled as supplements don't come under the regulation laws of the FDA, and there is no real verification of what is actually in a lot of supplements. They are frequently imported from foreign countries and there's no telling what's in the substances." says Winchester Dr. Daniel Schiavone.
As far as the message these kids are getting, obviously they're being told...steroids are not only unhealthy, they are illegal. But instead of telling kids what they can't do, area coaches have come up with alternative methods for youngsters to get the same results they would see from taking performance enhancers, yet in a healthy more natural way.
"From a coaching stand point, we've always taken the stance, well at least here at Sherando, that you can get everything through your diet if you eat properly, to get what you need in terms of recovery and also for games." Says Sherando Football Coach, Bill Hall.
Working on a separate story last week, we hung out with a group of competitive power lifters that train right here in Winchester. In their world, rumors of steroid and human growth hormone use run rampant. But, even these man of amazing might say that staying a hundred percent natural is the only way to be safe.
"I think it's sad that there are a lot people that feel they have to do drugs just to compete. I would do anything I could to talk somebody out of taking that avenue" says local power lifter, Larry Short.
So while professional athletes continue to dodge the million dollar question of whether or not they have ever used performance enhancers, you'll at least know this. Kids here in the Shenandoah valley are being given every tool possible, in their fight, to stay strong in the battle against steroids.