Eastern has begun devising a new drug testing policy in order to catch up to other universities who have more complete policies.

The change in drug testing will affect who will be tested and how often it will occur. Currently, the NCAA mandates Eastern only test random members of the football and track teams.

The school has begun to plan for the overhaul of the drug testing system, so the new program can be implemented by the spring semester in 2004.

Overall, the system currently is considered outdated because it does not include all the new drugs that should be included in the testing. This is because new forms of steroids and other supplements are constantly being formed, thus some schools cannot test for these drugs until they have officially been discovered.

“We have started implementing the new policy because currently we are a little bit behind some other schools,” Eastern director of athletics Rich McDuffie said. “We were not mandated to do it, but to do so would eliminate any surprise that we can encounter if we don’t.”

Eastern also doesn’t test as regularly as most schools and does not test all of the athletes in every sport.

In fact, most of the athletes at Eastern are not tested until they play in conference or national championships, when the athletes are tested by the NCAA.

However, attention is being given to the issue because the system currently used is inefficient since players who play any other sport besides football and track understand they won’t be tested too often.

But most coaches talk to their players about the issue and believe that their players do not break the rules.

“Overall, I have always had confidence in my players,” softball head coach Lloydene Searle said. “They know they are tested at championships, so we pay attention to the issue anyway. “

But while coaches may trust their own players to regulate what they do, the new testing program would be an added level of security for those players.

“It is hoped that the program will be a deterrent to any kind of drug use by our athletes,” McDuffie said.

Players in every sport will be tested on a regular basis if the new policy is used, and that will have more of an affect on how they deal with the issue.

“For each individual’s sake I like the idea of the new policy,” Searle said. “I like it because it is designed to keep our players safe.”

The personnel who execute the testing will not have ties to Eastern. Besides being paid by the university, the group that will be doing the testing will be an independent group of people.

This is designed to keep all people involved with the testing separate from those who run athletics.

“The process will be put in the hands of an independent organization,” certified athletic trainer Mark Bonnstetter said. “This will take it out of the hands of the athletic department.”

While the independent organization will be an unknown group of people, confidence will still be held in the group from coaches at Eastern.

“Other schools have gone through this successfully so I think we will too,” Searle said. “So if we do have an independent group doing the tests, as long as they have credibility they should do a fine job.”

The new testing policy will be refined over the next year before it is officially started. Until then, Eastern will continue with the policy they share with the NCAA.

Associate Sports Editor Matthew Stevens contributed to this story