Austin-area high school coaches: Drugs, other activities affect their student-athletes

For 24 years, Westlake coach Vickie Benson has mentored her players on personal issues that extend far beyond basketball.

Drug abuse. Mental health. Relationship problems. Trouble at home. Depression. Anxiety. Complicated situations that young people often suppress when problems travel faster than the speed of life.

“That’s part of the reason I do what I do,” the first-year Chaparrals coach said. “I love basketball, I’m highly competitive, and I can’t imagine it not be a part of my life. But it’s just a tool for me to have conversations with kids who might not feel comfortable with having them with somebody else.”

For every athletic achievement we experience at high school sporting events, there is so much more that spectators cannot see. We're not witnesses to the mental and physical grind student-athletes endure. We also live in an age of social media, and everyone is glued to a phone to get the latest about everything.

Life challenges can be more difficult than a calculus test you didn’t study for.

Coaches such as Benson are often sounding boards for students who need help off the field or court. They often serve as parents away from home. The best coaches are those who take an interest in a student’s welfare and mental state.

"We are constantly talking about the dangers of opioids, especially about fentanyl," Westlake football coach Tony Salazar said. "We remind them that one chance could cost them their lives. Make good choices; do not mess with pills."

Some coaches said social media is partly to blame for spreading the crisis.

“There are things that are more easily available today,” Wimberley football coach Doug Warren said. “Social media has put a spotlight on things. To me, it also reaches younger kids now. There were things kids from 20 years ago might not have seen until they reached high school. Now they’re seeing things at the junior high and elementary levels, no doubt.”

That includes the surging problem of opioid abuse.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently launched a “Friday Night Lights Against Opioids” coalition and pilot program to help stop the opioid epidemic found in every community and hurting young people, especially student-athletes. Paxton described opioids as a gateway drug that leads to bigger problems such as heroin and human trafficking. He added that most opioid misuse begins with sports injuries.

The attorney general’s office has partnered with the Texas High School Coaches Association to help implement the program to keep kids safe.

The coalition aims to distribute more than 3 million at-home medication disposal packets at high school football programs in Texas from Oct. 27 through Dec. 17. Distribution to athletes, parents and community leaders will be combined with public service announcements at games, and educational materials will be sent to roughly 1 million parents, guardians and students.

Warren is familiar with opioid abuse among teenagers.

“It’s definitely a subject we touch on as coaches,” he said. “I know the opioid crisis is in the forefront right now. I think we look at it in broader terms as far as drug use and alcohol use, smoking, vaping. All kids are subject to those things. As coaches, it’s part of our duty to talk to them about it, to make them realize the dangers of it. It takes all of us together to try to figure this thing out.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings between January 2021 and January 2022. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl were responsible for 67% of those deaths. Some were attributed to fentanyl mixed with other illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

In August, the Hays school district reported that all of its high school campuses had been affected by the crisis since May.

“The district has made a special effort to educate and warn all students about the dangers of fentanyl, which is presenting life-threatening issues to our youth,” Hawks football coach Les Goad said.

A few Central Texas coaches said the opioid problem is just one of many challenges they face.

“When parents tell me they suspect their kids have been smoking pot, my response is to have the kid tested if you have an idea that’s going on,” Bowie football coach Jeff Ables said. “I can’t test tell them, but a parent sure can.”

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Parents should have a key role if their kids are trying illegal drugs, Westlake’s Benson said. But they can do more to alleviate such problems.

“It’s probably the hardest battle we fight,” said Benson, who has coached basketball and volleyball at four Central Texas high schools. “I hope I don’t step on toes but if parents are lenient and OK with allowing their kids to do some of this stuff, it’s a really hard conversation to have.

“Some of my own kids’ friends said their parents were OK with them drinking and the partying. Their excuse was always, ‘Well, they’re just kids; they’re going to be kids.’ I think that’s the wrong approach. But I’m not here to parent other people’s children, just guide them.”

In Georgetown, one challenge is vaping, according to Eagles football coach Chuck Griffin.

“Vaping is the biggest issue and change I have seen in high school in 23 years,” Griffin said. “It is easy to get, easy to use, and easy to hide drug use in plain sight.”

Griffin said the Georgetown school district does random drug testing for all extracurricular activities. That provides those students with “another incentive” not to use drugs.

Cedar Park junior Isabel Conde De Frankenberg, a state cross-country and track and field champion, understands the pressure that student-athletes face on a daily basis but has never been tempted by illegal drugs. She has witnessed “drug dogs” sniffing at lockers at her school but does not believe opioids are a major problem there.

“I won’t accept (drugs),” she said. “I know where I stand on that situation. … I wouldn’t be able to achieve my dreams or become as a good a runner as I could be.”

A life that will include a college career — her dream school is Stanford — and a chance to compete in the Olympics someday drive her. She said she is eager to get out of bed each morning and join her teammates for early-morning runs.

Most coaches I talked to agree that social media — Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, WeChat — is part of the problem because kids are trying to "measure up" to what they see. Manor offensive coordinator Todd Brown took it a step farther, describing social media as "a monster."

"They have access to much more instant information, which is overloading," Benson said. "We’re not meant to handle as much information as we get at one time. Our brains are supposed to rest, and they’re constantly active."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin-area high school coaches discuss drugs, other activities