CENTERVILLE, Mass. – The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is pleased to announce that on Tuesday, October 1, 2013, the Taylor Hooton Foundation will be presenting at the 25th Annual ECAC Convention and Trade Show at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth, Mass. The Taylor Hooton Foundation’s mission is to interact with young students and influential adults to teach them about the realities of steroid and over the counter supplement abuse. The Foundation is currently partnered with dozens of sports organizations, ranging from Major League Baseball and the National Football League, to Little League Baseball and the World Anti-Doping Agency. For more information on the 2013 ECAC Convention CLICK HERE.
“I encourage all attendees of the 2013 ECAC Convention and Trade Show to take advantage of the presentation by the Taylor Hooton Foundation,” ECAC Commissioner Dr. Kevin T. McGinniss said. “This foundation is on the front-line in stopping substance abuse among our youth. They will show us how we can join them and assist in their efforts.”
Founded in 2004, the Taylor Hooton Foundation was created in memory of Taylor E. Hooton, a 17-year old high school athlete from Plano, TX. Hooton took his own life on July 15, 2003, after using anabolic steroids and his parents, family and friends formed the organization after learning of the alarming number of middle school, high school and college students using and abusing appearance and performance enhancing drugs (APEDs). The Taylor Hooton Foundation has discovered APED abuse is a serious problem not only among young athletes, but non-athletes looking to improve physique and self-esteem. They also learned young people and their parents are mostly uneducated on the side effects and availability of these drugs.
In its presentation, the Taylor Hooton Foundation will teach ECAC administrators how to spot steroid use, provide information to help them better educate their student-athletes on the consequences of steroid abuse and enlighten them on the positives and negatives of readily available dietary supplements. According to research conducted by the Taylor Hooton Foundation, the median age for first time steroid use is 15, the age of the average high school freshman or sophomore. Further research has revealed that 85% of high school students have never been informed of the dangers of steroids. Even more alarming, the average starting age for APED use is 11-years old and over six-million teenagers consume them.
In the days leading up to the 2013 ECAC Convention, the Taylor Hooton Foundation will be speaking at ten different high schools in Rhode Island, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and the University of Florida. Following the conclusion of the Convention, the Foundation will present at Wilmington University in New Castle, Del., the American College of Sports Medicine: New England Chapter in Providence, RI before traveling to Las Vegas for the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association’s training for Mixed Martial Arts fighters and trainers.