Monitoring is big part of UM game plan

The Baltimore Sun

COLLEGE PARK -- Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen says he routinely plucks about 20 players at random from the practice field each month and requires them to take drug tests.

"I have the largest group of male athletes on campus," says Friedgen, whose tests come in addition to others done by the university and the NCAA. "I have 18- to 22-year-old kids. If I don't stay on top of that, then I'll have a real problem."

Friedgen has been known to dispatch assistants to bars to try to keep players out of harm's way. His coaches also conduct periodic evening dormitory checks, and men's basketball coach Gary Williams began requiring his players this past season to live on campus.

The policing of athletes, which costs the university numerous hours and tens of thousands of dollars in drug tests alone, is an often hidden part of every coach's duties at Maryland.

"It's not the fun part of the job," Friedgen says. "I'd rather just coach football. But it's a very big part of being a head coach."

But no matter how proactive they might be, Maryland athletic officials say lapses in young athletes' behavior are inevitable. Like other large universities, Maryland has not been immune from troubles with players.

Documents obtained by The Sun under public records requests outline 97 cases of athletes' alleged misconduct from the fall of 2004 to October 2006. By far, the largest number of incidents involved positive drug tests (39) and drinking (16 alcohol-related violations). Eleven cases of plagiarism or other academic misconduct also were chronicled, along with a dozen for fighting or assaults.

The records provide a rare public snapshot of the kind of information that universities must track as they seek to protect and discipline athletes.

"Young people tend to be risk-takers and don't always have an appreciation of the consequences of their action," said David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute. "We don't hear about the chemistry major, but we certainly hear about the DUI of the starting quarterback."

The records show Maryland conducted more than 1,800 drug tests during the period, spending at least $60,000 and probably much more. It suspended two dozen athletes for a wide range of offenses and required counseling for nearly three dozen more.

Maryland provided a six-page database labeled "Department of Athletics, UMCP Confidential." It included thumbnail descriptions of each incident but redacted names, specific dates and sports for privacy reasons.

"We have approximately 647 student-athletes between the ages of 18-22 that we deal with on a daily basis," said Kathleen Worthington, a senior associate athletic director at Maryland. "Overall, we are pleased with how they represent the university athletically, academically and socially."

Some Maryland athletes' cases have been made public, such as that of former basketball player Travis Garrison, accused of assaulting a woman at a College Park bar in 2005. He was suspended for a game for violating team rules but didn't serve jail time. Another basketball player, Chris McCray, was arrested in 2005 after allegedly refusing to leave the scene of a fight and was declared academically ineligible early in 2006.

Steroid violation

The documents outlined other incidents that received little or no publicity. These included a driving-under-the-influence allegation that forced an athlete to sit out part of an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, a plagiarism case serious enough to trigger a one-year suspension and a drug case that resulted in a lengthy suspension because it was the third such violation.

The records show there was a steroid violation in the spring of 2005. Although the documents don't name the athlete or sport, the violation came from the football program, according to an athletic department source whose account wasn't disputed by athletic officials. The student left school that semester. The player was a walk-on, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"What we are proud of is there was only one" positive steroid test, athletic director Debbie Yow said. "He never played a game. That's one thing we will say - the person who tested positive never competed for the University of Maryland."

Maryland increased its number of overall drug tests from 413 in 2004 to 538 in 2005. In 2006, it went to 882. The number of positive tests also increased from six in 2004 to 19 in 2005. The number of failed tests fell to 16 in 2006. Overall, 2.1 percent of athletes' tests produced a positive result during the past three years.

"It's hard to argue against the effectiveness of our drug policies when the numbers are going down," said Brian Ullmann, an associate athletic director. "Our drug policy is working. All you have to do is look at the numbers."

The failed drug tests included eight second violations, which normally draw a two-week suspension, and two third violations triggering a minimum one-year suspension. In all but a few cases - they were for marijuana - the documents didn't identify the drug.

On the lookout

Worthington said every coach is encouraged to give athletes additional drug tests. About three or four times a year - or whenever Friedgen gets suspicious - he subjects a handful of players to a more expensive test for steroids. Regular drug tests cost $33 and steroid tests cost $70, the university said.

Athletic officials said they are always looking for telltale lapses in motivation, punctuality and coordination or other behavioral changes that could indicate drug use.

Former offensive lineman Donnie Woods said he was subjected to numerous drug tests under Friedgen the past few seasons. If the coach suspected him of anything, Woods said, he didn't know why. He said he never tested positive.

"I can't even count how many times I was drug-tested," Woods said, but he wasn't complaining. "They definitely do a good job of it. I would say the general consensus was people were pretty scared and stayed away from that kind of stuff."

But former wide receiver Danny Melendez wasn't as confident in the system. Melendez, whose senior season was in 2005, said steroids weren't prevalent in the football program, but that the drug tests were hardly a deterrent for the recreational drug users on the team.

"The people who are going to do it, do it," he said. "It doesn't really deter them. [The testing is] so far in between that guys really feel like they can get away with it."

Melendez added: "It's not out of control. The majority don't do it."

Melendez said he was tested three times in his four years at Maryland, and that included one steroid test by the NCAA.

The NCAA does its own testing, but only a small percentage of athletes face tests in a given year. According to Worthington, the NCAA tests between 15 to 50 athletes at the school two or three times a year for street drugs, steroids and numerous other banned substances.

"All you know is you come over there and you think you're going to practice and the next thing you know, you've got to take a drug test," former Maryland cornerback Josh Wilson said.

Like the University of Virginia, Maryland emphasizes counseling and education for first-time offenders and treats steroids the same as marijuana and other illegal drugs - a policy that a well-known steroid experts criticized as too lax.

Penn State steroid expert Charles Yesalis, who often has testified before Congress about the drugs, said treating performance enhancers the same as recreational drugs "is at worst indefensible" and that steroid use warranted punishment.

"Your traditional drugs of abuse are to bring you down or get you high," Yesalis said. "Nobody's getting high on steroids, so that logic of treating it the same as traditional drugs of abuse falls short on me."

Sacared Bodison, director of the University Health Center, declined to provide information about the mandatory counseling required under an initial violation.

No separate policy

The drug policy wasn't developed by the athletic department, but rather by faculty and others. Yow said she hasn't "seriously considered" developing a separate drug policy for the athletic department because the current policy works.

"This is one people have felt strongly about for educational purposes," she said. "We abide by it and believe it's been effective."

While athletic departments at many other schools also defer to their university administrations, some have taken special action to keep players in line. Wake Forest's athletic department says it puts steroids, cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens in a specific class whose usage can result in expulsion.

Last fall, the University of North Carolina's athletic department imposed a policy that would terminate an athlete's career at the school for a first steroid offense. The NCAA mandates a year's suspension when an athlete fails one of its steroid tests.

Not all random tests check for steroids. Worthington said they are done based on reasonable suspicion and trends across the country and on campus.

The Sun sent records requests to the eight public schools in the ACC requesting the same information it received from Maryland. Private schools wouldn't have been obliged to respond. Of the public institutions, only Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech provided information.

Still, comparing Maryland's violations with these or other schools' was problematic because not all keep the same records, have the same rules or test for drugs in the same way.

Unlike the other ACC public schools, Maryland had an existing compilation of athletes' offenses because a faculty member had requested it last year. Violations are normally kept in individual athlete records, and will continue to be recorded that way.

Maryland athletes' misconduct rate was less than that of the general student population from 2004 to 2006, Worthington said in a letter to The Sun. The letter was based on reports that include offenses on campus or at university-sponsored events, but does not include off-campus incidents unless they resulted in a criminal conviction.

Friedgen, in his seventh year as head coach, said that every Friday, his last words to his players are: "Make good decisions." He has an 11 p.m. curfew during the week and makes routine dorm checks on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

After 2005-06, when legal and academic issues tarnished an already disappointing season, Williams, the men's basketball coach, repeatedly said one of the team's goals was to be "good citizens."

Last year's group not only stayed out of trouble and remained academically eligible, but it also won enough basketball games to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in three seasons.

"You want everyone to do what's right," Williams said. "You want them to do well in school, to do well as basketball players and have a great college experience."

jeff.barker@baltsun.com

heather.dinich@baltsun.com

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