Chicago Bandits help spread Hooton's message

Taylor Hooton was a 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior varsity pitcher who, like many high school students, was hoping to make the varsity team and earn a college scholarship to continue playing baseball.

At Plano West High School in Texas, Hooton's baseball coach gave him one simple request in order to earn a spot on the varsity roster: put on 20 pounds.

Taylor began taking steroids and from that point on, his life took a horrifying downward spiral. Even after Taylor stopped doping, the withdrawal effects caused him to suffer from depression before he hung himself.

Taylor Hooton is not alone among high school athletes hoping to play at the next level. Between five and six percent of high school students - roughly between 800,000 and 1 million - take steroids.

On Thursday afternoon, prior to the Chicago Bandits game against the Washington Glory, Taylor's dad, Don Hooton, along with Steve Smith, gave a presentation to players from both teams, promoting their not-for-profit organization: The Taylor Hooton Foundation, which was founded in February 2004. The foundation has received funding from Major League Baseball to promote its mission.

"From a young person's perspective, what message are we sending?" Don Hooton said. "When they are three and four years old, they find out what is the right way to look. This is the image that is being promoted when your in shape."

The foundation is going around the United States to promote it's cause and prevent current young athletes to falling fatally like Taylor did. Through "Taylor's Law," which Don had passed in Texas, between 10,000 and 25,000 Texas high school students involved in extra curricular activities are randomly tested for steroids every year, which is more than Olympic athletes are tested.

"The reason isn't to put young kids in jail," Don Hooton said. "We want to make a deterrent if [the kids] know that they will lose a scholarship or lose a place on the team."

Don Hooton said that his foundation is still young and having some growing pains, but with the help of Major League Baseball and the National Pro Fastpitch league, he is hoping to raise awareness and end the steroid era.