The steroid scandals that rocked the professional sports world in the past year have put the spotlight on all athletes, including those at the collegiate level and UC Davis.

The university follows NCAA guidelines on random testing for drugs like steroids and runs an aggressive education effort on the subject, said Jeff Hogan, UC Davis' head athletic trainer. The university, in the midst of a transition to Division I, has more than 700 student athletes participating in 26 varsity sports.

Athletes take steroids because they help build bigger muscles and reduce the recovery time for muscles, allowing for more frequent, more intense workouts. But Hogan and other campus experts advise athletes to never risk their well-being or tarnish their sport and team by taking steroids.

"We teach them that the ends do not justify the means, and that true success is found in their character as well as on the playing field," said Hogan, who leads a staff of five certified trainers, eight team doctors and 30 student trainers.

As Hogan notes, taking and possessing steroids without a prescription is illegal. Beyond the potential health effects, other dangers include jail time and suspensions from athletic competition. The steroid short cut is nothing but a dead end for a real athlete, he said.

Former major league baseball star Jose Canseco's new book has intensified the focus on athletes who use and abuse steroids. But the athlete's pursuit of performance enhancing substances certainly is nothing new.

Historians note that the wrestlers of ancient Greece ate huge quantities of meat to build muscle, and that Norse warriors ate hallucinogenic mushrooms to gear up for battle.

Steroids were first developed in the 1930s in Germany and then used in World War II by the Nazis in their animals and soldiers. After the war, doctors in Europe and the United States frequently used steroids to treat the blood disorder anemia and malnutrition, and to help patients recover more quickly from operations. By the late 1940s, bodybuilders in Eastern Europe were taking testosterone in various forms.

Collegiate testing begins

It was not until 1986, though, that the NCAA began testing for anabolic steroids. Since then, only one UC Davis athlete has tested positive, according to Hogan. He attributes this success to UC Davis' traditional focus on the "student" aspect of the athlete and its drug education efforts.

The NCAA's more comprehensive random testing program, launched in 1992, looks for performance enhancers such as anabolic agents, diuretics, ephedrine, peptide hormones, human growth hormone, erythropoietin and urine manipulators. If athletes test positive, they can lose their eligibility to compete at the NCAA level.

That is one reason why Ryan Sharp, a 6-foot, 290-pound defensive lineman at UC Davis, says using steroids hurts both the player and the team. "Using steroids is unfair at the collegiate level," said Sharp, who says professional sports such as Major League Baseball must share a large portion of the blame for not having tough regulations. "If a sport leaves a door open, well, somebody's going to go through it. The players aren't the only ones to fault."

Sharp took a random NCAA test last year, and passed. The junior, a sociology major, suggests that if young athletes want to get stronger and bigger, then they need to do it the old-fashioned way. He says he does not know anyone using steroids.

"If you're serious," said Sharp, "get on a strict work-out plan, eat the right food, avoid alcohol and drugs, and get enough sleep and rest."

Spreading the message

As for UC Davis, Sharp describes it as "one of the more legitimate schools around" when it comes to combating steroid usage.

At the start of each team's season, Hogan said, a mandatory meeting is held for student athletes on NCAA eligibility issues such as drug policy and testing. Each academic quarter, the athletic department offers an educational session on the topic of health and wellness.

"There are many educational posters placed in the locker rooms, athletic training rooms, and hallways within the athletic facilities," said Hogan.

For those athletes who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs, the NCAA slaps first-time offenders with an immediate one-year suspension. However, first-time offenders who fail drug tests administered by a school typically are only required to undergo counseling.

The NCAA permanently bans an athlete who tests positive twice. At UC Davis, Hogan said that the student-athlete is also referred to UC Davis Student Judicial Affairs for review.

The NCAA also allows some schools to handle their own testing. In 2003, 89 percent of Division I-A schools did independent testing, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"Each institution has the ability to implement its own independent drug-testing program in addition if desired," said Hogan. "UC Davis does not have such an independent testing program."

Each NCAA Division I and Division II school is guaranteed at least one random test session per year, according to Hogan, who adds that UC Davis has had up to three in one year. Once the NCAA selects an institution for random testing, Hogan said that university is notified at least 48 hours prior to the test date. The NCAA randomly selects the student athletes targeted for testing from a list of all athletes for each sport provided by the school.

At Davis, Hogan said, up to 14 students are evaluated in the NCAA random testing sessions.

As Hogan explains, the NCAA testing procedure consists of collecting a urine sample and sending that sample to a certified laboratory for analysis. The testing is done through the National Center for Drug Free Sport in Kansas City.

Though the university has no official record of how many athletes have been tested through the years, Hogan estimates that at least 156 UC Davis athletes have undergone the procedure since the NCAA instituted random testing in 1992. He said many athletes were tested when the school competed in Division II championships.

Difficult to detect but damaging

The problem with today's drug-testing protocols, says Dr. Massimo Testa, a physician in the UC Davis Sports Medicine Program, is that not all steroids are detectable.

As a former sports medicine specialist for several international cycling teams, Testa has helped train many professional athletes, including Lance Armstrong and Dr. Eric Heiden -- now his colleague.

"People who are using steroids in a sophisticated manner can have them modified so the tests do not reveal them," said Testa. Originally, he said, prescription steroids were used for people with low testosterone levels or injuries.

Testa said steroid abuse has been linked to unusually high rates of cancers to the stomach, liver and brain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and aggressiveness, or "roid rage" as it is sometimes called.

He added that males who abuse steroids may also suffer shrunken testicles and females begin to take on male characteristics.

"It's a culture of getting bigger that we live in," Testa said. "But bigger doesn't mean better in a lot of sports, and it certainly doesn't make you more masculine."

Liz Applegate, who has taught nutrition at UC Davis since 1985, discusses steroids in her Nutrition 10 class, which enrolls more than 2,000 students annually.

"I explain how steroids work and that you can't just pump up your biceps and not have other side effects. They can set your system out of whack," she said.

Applegate, who has served as a nutrition consultant for the U.S. Olympic Team as well as players and teams in the NBA and NFL, has a lot of contact with UC Davis student athletes seeking fitness advice. She said that several years ago she noticed a number of steroid users among the athletes, but since then she says the campus has done its part getting athletes to avoid the drug.

Like Testa, she notes the sexual effects.

One turn-off for the males is noting the female-like qualities that emerge from steroid use, said Applegate, adding that she knew of some UC Davis male athletes who several years ago actually had to have breast reduction surgeries. "The side effects are real," Applegate said.

'They don't see it as cheating'

When Deanne Vochatzer was the U.S. Women's Track and Field Coach at the 1996 Atlantic Olympic Games, her team had to deal with three positive tests for steroids. At UC Davis since 1989, the women's track and field coach has not encountered any positive tests.

It's a big problem in the world of professional sports, says Vochatzer. "At the pro and elite levels, they feel it's part of their jobs (to take steroids). They don't see it as cheating."

Vochatzer said that the pros "don't want to catch anyone. It's a joke. The colleges do have tougher standards, and at the high schools it's often a question of expense and resources."

In the end, the coach said, it's the clean and straight players who are hurt. "I feel sorry for those pro athletes of the last 10 or 15 years who have been clean."

Like Vochatzer, UC Davis baseball head coach Rex Peters says colleges are better at monitoring their players for steroid usage.

"I don't think steroids are a problem at this time in college athletics," said Peters. "And I believe that is due to the strict program the NCAA has set forth. That's not to say that there aren't some student athletes out there that are using or have used steroids at some time in their college career."

But, Peters is quick to add, the consequences clearly outweigh the benefits.