Waterloo Regional Police raided a home of a football player for alleged stolen goods but instead they found out several steroids and HGH. This immediately prompted the University of Waterloo to ban the still unnamed football player pending the investigation. And to prove that they do not tolerate steroid use in the field, the entire Waterloo Warriors football team was sent to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports for steroid testing. According to UW athletics director Bob Copeland, it sends a strong signal through the whole league and that it is something that can happen to any program. He also said that the entire university supports this decision. The testing will cost the university at least $200 each for more than 65 players.

Once the result is ready, the Centre for Ethics in sports will inform the CIS of any positive tests. The result however will take more or less a month but the university is hoping that it will not give more positive tests. Copeland said that he was bitterly disappointed and deeply concerned on what had happened but he also told the media that he will just wait for the result. “Testing is done to catch the guilty and exonerate those who would be under any suspicion,” he said.

But the incident did not end in the testing of the entire football team. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport has dispatched testers to other schools like the university of Guelph, McMaster, Western and Wilfrid Laurier. The Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) is also involved in the planned testing of the athletes. They were not happy with the incident in the Waterloo since they have a strong stand against the use of performance enhancers.

CIS chief executive Marg McGregor confirmed that the substances found on the player were steroids and growth hormone. Using banned substances does not make sense while studying at Canadian intitutions according to the CIS chief. “It’s a high-risk game to be taking steroids and in my view the risk-reward just isn’t there. It’s unfortunate that some people make bad choices,” she said. Based on the Canadian Press reports, there have been 56 doping infractions from over 5,800 tests since the CIS began its doping control program in 1990.

According to Rosemary Pitfield, spokesperson for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, the test will be looking for various banned substances including steroids, HGH and masking agents. Results will be made public after a couple of weeks. Their concern is to determine the extent of steroid use in colleges as well as high schools and area gyms. “The bigger concern is that this may not be limited to the university system or even the sports arena. Kids are very concerned about body image and some of them will do anything to improve it,” she said. “We’ll spread the blanket as wide as it needs to go,” she added.

The centre is also concerned on the dangers of using performance enhancers. “It’s dangerous and to think that people believe the answer to life is a quick fix when they are risking their health,” said Pitfield.

Peter Baxter of Ontario University Athletics football is optimistic that university football will endure the controversy. “Ontario university football will survive this black cloud. My experience is that most student-athletes act responsibly. There’s a very, very small element that may be involved in this unauthorized activity,” he said.

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