SDSU Gets Back on the Track : Miller Changes Mind and Lifts Suspension; Drug Tests Given
San Diego State Athletic Director Fred Miller, reacting to requests from team members and coaches, on Friday announced that he had lifted the suspension of SDSU’s track and field athletes.
The announcement came three hours before members of the men’s and women’s teams lined up outside the SDSU training room door to undergo testing for possible use of anabolic steroids and recreational drugs.
A large percentage of about 80 athletes scheduled for testing were there, but Miller said the university would not release a statement concerning the number of individuals tested.
Jim Cerveny, women’s coach, said: “All the people we thought would be there were there.”
The testing lasted about five hours.
Miller had announced on Monday that the track athletes would be suspended until the results of specimen tests were revealed, some time next week. But now men’s and women’s team members who underwent testing Friday will be allowed to compete in an 11 a.m. meet today at Choc Sportsman Track against Cal Poly Pomona, Colorado, Oregon State, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
“The rationale for suspending the athletes Monday was that we felt we were in an extremely reactive position here eight to 10 days ago, with people making all of those allegations about possible steroid use,” Miller said. “By imposing the suspension, we feel we moved into an active mode.
“We’ve accomplished all that we wanted to by setting up the drug testing, and we want to get our people back on the track doing what they do best, which is competing.”
Miller reversed his decision in the wake of a meeting he had Thursday with six SDSU track captains and head coaches Dixon Farmer and Cerveny.
“In the meeting I had with the representatives, they were very persuasive,” Miller said. “They said that since they had agreed to the testing procedure they should be able to compete. I think that’s a very persuasive argument, and Tom Day (San Diego State president) agreed with me. We felt these people ought to be able to compete.”
After making his announcement, Miller was asked whether he had any second thoughts about easing up on his original stance to suspend the athletes.
“Do I feel OK about this? Yes,” Miller said. “We had to do something Monday to put an end to all of the mudslinging that was going on. I’m happy because we set some goals then, and we met them. If anybody wants to criticize what we’ve done now, so be it.”
Farmer, the men’s coach, wasn’t criticizing anyone after Friday’s announcement.
“I’ve worked for four athletic directors since I’ve been here (1981), and some of the others were more like dictators,” Farmer said. “They would make up their minds on something, and that would be it. Dr. Miller has been interested in gathering the facts and making his judgments based on them. When we talked with him, he was very understanding, and he obviously felt a change could be made.”
Four team captains--Laura DeSnoo, Mark Snyder, Ed Cooper and Andre Freeman--wrote a letter that Miller received Wednesday. In it, the athletes said they wanted an opportunity to try to change Miller’s position on the suspension.
“I’m not surprised he changed his mind,” said LaTanya Sheffield, a captain on the women’s team. “We appealed to him with everything we had in our heart. He listened very sincerely, and we felt he didn’t have any reason not to lift the suspension.”
Miller said he hopes the test results from the UCLA Medical Center will be available in six or seven days.
Miller left Friday afternoon to spend the weekend in New York with his family. He said will return Wednesday.
Friday’s announcement ended a long week for the athletic director that included the Monday suspension and a snafu Wednesday that held up testing for a day.
“We had a problem, we addressed the problem, and we’re confident we’re well on our way to resolving the problem,” Miller said. “You have to remember we’re paving new ground here.”