I had an alternative thought and wanted input please. My intention is to make a presentation to our school board to offer an alternative strategy. It would seem more towards the charter of the schools, in that it is educational and not enforcement.
I am on the downside of reading a book, "Advanced Sports Nutrition" by Dan Bernardot PhD. Very tough scientific reading (for me), but tremendously informative. We have dedicated young athletes at our HS that spend hundreds of off season hours training and conditioning. In spite of this, after reading this book, I am a converted believer, that we are doing a great disservice to these young athletes by not providing them the requisite knowledge of nutrition and nutrition delivery timing and that is holding back their gains from training tremendously.
I would propose that drug testing would impact very, very few individuals and is a negative, policing effort and does little to benefit the greater majority of compliant athletes. It is also a financial burden that would have an excessive expenditure per incident ratio to make it a cost ineffective program. To argue it would serve as a deterrent, we would first have to estimate the number of current offenders it would dissuade. Even then, the costs would probably remain prohibitive.
On the other hand, offering a class in sports nutrition would impact every athlete in a positive manner. Hire a qualified nutritionist/dietician to teach a couple of classes each day. Offer it as an elective alternative to phys ed, because after all, it is the atheletes that are already training that would be most interested. Shown benefit, I could see coaches requiring their players to take the course.
There are my basic ideas. Please criticize, expound, show me pitfalls I haven't seen...in short, help me, so that I may make the most effective presentation possible.
Cheers