Pubdate: Sun, 06 Oct 2002
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2002 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Mark Story

TEST OF DIGNITY

NCAA's Drug-Screening Procedures Invasive And 'Weird' But Necessary

And you think your job has drawbacks.

Imagine if your work required you to go into bathroom stalls with total 
strangers and watch them urinate into a cup.

For Scott Luebke, his vocation can require just that.

Luebke works for Forward Edge, a Lexington company that administers drug 
tests to college athletes, among other clients.

When a drug test is administered on behalf of the NCAA -- or when a 
university asks that its own drug testing be conducted according to 
NCAA-approved procedures -- this is what is required:

The athlete is compelled to enter a secured bathroom facility.

In full view of an observer of the same sex as the athlete, they are 
required to lower their pants to the mid-thigh level.

To raise their shirts to mid-stomach.

Then execute a full 360-degree turn so the observer can be certain that 
they have not smuggled in any substance that would compromise the drug test.

Finally, the athlete is required to, well, do their business in a position 
that provides the observer an unobstructed view of urine entering cup.

"Obviously, it's not the most comfortable, fun thing to do in the world," 
Luebke says of observing such tests.

"I think I do a pretty good job of not getting all upset and embarrassed. 
You want to create an atmosphere that is both professional and relaxed, but 
some people are really, really uncomfortable."

The reason the NCAA uses such an invasive drug testing regimen is obvious: 
to keep people from cheating.

Sports lore overflows with tales of the lengths to which athletes will go 
to beat drug tests. From smuggling in "clean urine" before tests to 
smuggling it in tubes placed inside body crevices to using agents designed 
to mask banned substances.

Keith Webster, the head athletics trainer at Kentucky, says an old drug 
testing tale involves a quarterback who asks his girlfriend to provide him 
with a "clean" urine sample.

When the test comes back, the QB is told that there is good news and bad news.

"The good news is your drug test is clean," Webster says. "The bad news is 
you're pregnant."

Frank D. Uryasz, the President of The National Center for Drug Free Sports, 
the organization that supervises drug testing for the NCAA, says that 
college athletes have been subjected to "observed collections" from the 
time the NCAA started its testing program in 1986.

As a rule, Uryasz says the NCAA tries to hire people with backgrounds in 
the medical profession as observers for drug tests to make the atmosphere 
as professional as possible.

"I don't think athletes are that bothered by this," Uryasz (rhymes with 
curious) says. "For the most part, with what goes on in locker rooms and 
training rooms, athletes are used to reduced privacy."

Well, maybe not.

"It's very violating," Kentucky quarterback Jared Lorenzen says of observed 
urine collections. "You just feel violated.

"It's like your own personal time in there -- but there is a guy in there 
with you (saying), 'Pull up your shirt. Turn around.' It's a weird experience."

Still, Lorenzen says he understands why athletes are subjected to it.

"I guess they have no choice," he says. "People would cheat. But it is 
amazingly violating."

At the Division I level, the NCAA itself conducts random drug tests of 
athletes in three sports: football, men's and women's track and field and, 
most recently, baseball.

Those are thought by college athletics officials to be the sports where the 
use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs is most prevalent.

In other sports, the NCAA directly administers drug tests only during 
post-season championships.

However, many individual schools conduct their own drug testing programs. 
Webster, the UK trainer, says Kentucky uses NCAA protocol in administering 
its own drug tests because it is the best way to ensure "authentic" samples.

Also, Webster says, it prepares Kentucky athletes for the circumstances 
under which they will have to "perform" should they be selected for an 
NCAA-mandated drug test during national tournaments.

If you're not used to someone watching you, that can be a problem.

Luebke says there are people who really struggle with performing under the 
pressure of direct observation.

"Sometimes we wait, seven, eight hours," he says.

When that happens, Luebke says veteran drug testers have a bag of tricks 
they use to try to relax the athlete.

They might flush a toilet.

Turn on water at the sink.

In dire circumstances, even ask the athlete to step into a shower where the 
water would be turned on.

"Trying to relax them, plant the suggestion in the mind of running water," 
Luebke says.

For college athletes, the loss of privacy is part of the cost they pay to 
play. And probably another reason they need to unionize.

For those compelled by their job to watch others pee, eventually it becomes 
just another day in the office.

Says Luebke: "You do get used to it."

There may be a stranger job requirement out there. Can't imagine what it 
would be.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens