Effort against steroids starts with youth.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

Along with their competition numbers, the 5,657 athletes at the USA National Junior Olympics Track & Field Championships got a poster.

It was a message from USA Track & Field, the governing body of the sport in this country.

"Zero Tolerance," it says. "Steroids = Lifetime Ban. If you cheat, you will get caught."

It's a reflection of the tough year for the sport in the United States that the posters have been introduced. It's a reflection of the BALCO scandal, and the elite athletes facing lifetime doping bans. It's a reflection of the suspensions of Kelli White, Regina Jacobs and Kevin Toth.

It's a reflection of the desire by USATF leadership to eventually stay in front on this issue, rather than scramble from behind.

Next year, the young athletes who compete in Junior Olympics can expect more than a poster.

In the future, USATF and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency are planning joint presentations at events such as the Junior Olympics and the separate Junior Nationals, concentrating not simply on steroids, but on the banned substances that can be found in cold medications or, for example, in medication taken for asthma or attention-deficit disorder.

That's just part of the new anti-doping efforts of USA Track & Field, which range from tougher penalties at the elite level, to fundamental education at the broad base of the sport.

"We're trying to educate people who are part of the sport on a national grass-roots basis, because that's where the fight against drugs starts," USATF communications director Jill Geer said Wednesday.

For the record, there is no drug testing at the Junior Olympics.

"It would be inappropriate to ask an 8-year-old kid to strip down and give a sample," Geer said.

Or, as South Eugene's Erin Gray put it, after winning the steeplechase Tuesday: "I've never heard of anything happening at this level. It would be a little ridiculous, I guess, because we're just kids. ... It's kind of sad, but I really don't know a whole lot about steroids, other than the fact that they get you into trouble."

However, there is drug-testing at the Junior Nationals, a more elite meet - held this year at College Station, Texas - because it's for athletes 19 and under, and thus attracts only collegiate athletes and

top preps.

And the Junior Nationals meet has produced positive tests over the years - generally, Geer said, because an athlete wasn't aware of a banned substance contained in cough syrup or asthma medication.

"When junior or youth athletes are testing positive, it's almost always because they lack the knowledge to make sure they've filled out the proper forms," Geer said. As an organization, we have to take responsibility for making sure they do understand it."

Thus, the more than 5,000 athletes at the Junior Olympics represent a teachable moment - not because any more than a select few will become elite postcollegiate athletes, but because most will become high school athletes, or already are.

Coaches need to be educated on the issue, too, and many are.

"We talk about it," said Maury Embry, coach of the East Cobb Track Club in Roswell, Ga. "We talk about the rules, and to not get involved in it, and about being careful, even about cough medicines."

Embry said the main target for the anti-steroids message should be high school athletes, because those athletes have the opportunity to obtain steroids, and, make no mistake, they see them being used by athletes in other sports.

"If a coach is promoting a kid at this level to take steroids, he ought to be shot," Embry said.

USA Track & Field hasn't adopted that approach yet, nor is it issuing posters of elite athletes who have been nabbed, with the word "CAUGHT" stamped on their faces.

Will lectures and "say no" posters for kids who are barely teen-agers ultimately have an impact at the elite level, where the risk/reward of cheating isn't simply a medal, but a lucrative endorsement contract?

Maybe not much, but better to make that effort, than not.