Football players fail to pass surprise drug test
WILLEY
By Adrian Kendrick | Managing Editor
Five football players out of 30 student athletes tested positive on Jan. 14 for marijuana drug use.
“As a department, we are not going to sit back and say we don’t care,” said Sue Willey, director of athletics. “It’s a privilege to be a student athlete, and they are held to a higher standard. So if they want to use [marijuana], they shouldn’t be student athletes.”
When asked about the situation, head football coach Joe Polizzi declined to comment.
According to Ned Shannon, instructor and head athletic trainer, a “higher standard” includes student athletes refraining from recreational or performance enhancing drugs.
“We [UIndy] have multiple testings per year, and every sport is eligible to have random student athletes selected during the fall and the spring,” Shannon said.
According to the UIndy Athletics Web site (athletics.uindy.edu), the drugs or drug classes to be tested are, but not limited to, alcohol, stimulants, anabolic agents, diuretics, street drugs, peptide hormones and analogues.
Sanctions after positive test results include for the first offense additional testing whenever the athletic program conducts testing, a mandatory conference call with a parent or guardian, immediate suspension from the first full day of competition and an evaluation by the student athlete-counseling psychologist, according to the Web site.
After the first drug-related offense, the consequences continue to increase, with the third offense resulting in removal from the team along with cancellation and inability to renew their athletic scholarship.
Based on the coach’s decision, the player or players who tested positive also may face additional consequences. Willey said that some coaches are becoming more adamant about using fund-raiser money to test the entire team.
Willey also said that next year the consequences for testing positive will increase, and once the athlete or athletes have tested positive for the second time, they will be terminated.
“I was disappointed. We don’t like to do this, but we are also not going to tolerate this conduct, and we believe this is in the best interest of our student athletes,” Willey said. “They fail to realize [that] what they do is a reflection of their team and the coaching staff. I hear a lot of student athletes say they should legalize marijuana. Well, it’s not [legal] so they shouldn’t be using.”
