He's 17, a high school linebacker, with what has been described to him as a bright future. He knows a college coach will fly in to watch the game tomorrow, and he's in the middle of his steroid cycle.

It's risky to use in the locker room, but a teammate gives the signal; coach is gone. In a closed bathroom stall it only takes 20 seconds to fill the syringe with anabolic steroid and pump the juice into the buttocks.

Caleb Anderson says this scene is a common one in Valley high school sports. In the past three years, Anderson has played 5A football at two different Valley high schools. Anderson says, "The people who just have natural talent and work really hard almost can't compete. You're either really gifted or taking steroids to get really mean and strong," he says. Perhaps exaggerating, perhaps just bitter about his own inability, his line of thinking sheds light on what has, according to several officials, become more common in high school sports.

While no one knows exactly how many Valley athletes use steroids, star athletes at 4A and 5A schools say the drug is readily accessible for those who want it and can afford it. They know they won't be tested for it.

"There were always a couple who admitted to it, and a few more who seemed to use," Anderson says of his own teammates.

Heavily recruited Saguaro High School senior Tyler Porras agrees that many Valley teams house a handful of steroid users. "Yeah, it's common. You can find steroids anywhere," Porras says. "I can guarantee you there's a handful of players on every Arizona team that take. It's sad that they'll stoop to that level."

In 2003, ten Buckeye High School football players were caught using steroids, not by a random drug test, but a mother who found the drugs in her son's bedroom.

Arizona has yet to launch a widespread high school investigation into the steroid issue, but several athletes, coaches and doctors say random steroid testing would level the playing field and protect the health of athletes. Despite that common concern, no Arizona agency has expressed its interest in moving forward with tests.

"Everyone knows it, but they hide it. It's a win-win situation for everybody, so no one's going to admit anything," Anderson says of coaches, schools and athletes.

In Texas, legislators are now pushing for random steroid testing after the highly publicized suicide of a steroid-using high school football player. While the Valley has yet to see such a highly publicized horror story, Arizona and Texas share many of the elements that bring steroids dangerously close to youth sports: close proximity to Mexico, pressure from national scouts, extreme competition and a culture that idolizes athletes and image.

The Times interviewed more than 20 past and present Valley high school athletes, coaches, parents, physicians and steroid users to better understand how many Valley athletes are using steroids, where they're obtaining them and what motivates them to expose themselves to the risks of performance-enhancing drugs.

A Few Athletes

Dr. Fred Dicke has been a sports physician in the Scottsdale Unified School District for nearly15 years. Each school year he sees at least three Valley high school athletes who clearly use steroids.

"I've covered pretty much every school here at one time or another. It's pretty well pronounced throughout most schools," the medical doctor says.

Many athletes accuse rivals of using steroids, but the majority of 4A and 5A athletes interviewed for this story confirmed steroid use by their own teammates.

"Usually it's guys who know they're going to college or pro ball," said a Valley junior varsity baseball coach who asked that he and his school not be named in this story. The coach confirmed that varsity baseball players at his own school use steroids.

In addition to highly scouted athletes, Dr. Dicke says he sees many "fringe" athletes who use steroids in an attempt to push their game to the next level and get noticed by scouts.

Caleb Anderson says steroid use among teammates is often obvious. "There's been years where I'm stronger and heavier than a kid, and he'll come back a year later and be three times stronger," says Anderson, who at 16 weighed a muscular 205 pounds, according to recruiting records.

"One former teammate came back from summer 30 pounds heavier, with horrible breakouts on his back and was known to snap randomly," Anderson says, describing common signs of steroid use. "Later that teammate's direct relative was arrested for dealing steroids, but the coach was willing to turn his head because he made us a much better team," Anderson adds.

In a world where image and success are defined by size, speed and power, steroids offer a magical way to grow at supernatural rates. One Desert Mountain High School graduate and former football player cites this example: While a fit high school male may bench press about 200 pounds, "I saw benches improve from 185 [pounds] to 265 in two weeks," he says of a teammate who credited steroids for the sudden increases.

"'Roids make good players great and average players good," Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Nick Leckey says. "But it's taking shortcuts. It messes with your whole structure. People don't understand it stretches your tendons, which makes you more prone to injury."

Leckey says steroids were common in the Texas high schools where he played just six years ago. "When you're younger you can be easily dissuaded. Most people don't realize it's like a downward spiral," Leckey says. "Once you see how easy [steroid use] is you get off, don't see the same results. So you get back on and do double doses. It's a downward cycle."

For one Texas high school athlete, that downward spiral ended in suicide. Taylor Hooton's death nearly two years ago has several Texas legislators calling for random tests.

Preventative Invasion: To Test or Not?

Currently there are literally no U.S. high schools testing for steroids, which involve a separate test different from general drug tests. As such, high school players with steroid access need not be nearly as cautious as college or professional athletes.

Numerous Arizona coaches and athletes say their own 4A and 5A high schools have steroid problems, but nothing is being done. Tempe High School baseball coach Bryan Burger thinks steroid testing is needed. "I know that's going to raise all sorts of liability issues, and parents aren't going to be really happy. I just don't see you being able to control it any other way," the former Valley high school and ASU baseball player says.

But officials seem unconcerned. "The prevailing attitude in many schools is don't ask, don't tell," Buckeye High School football coach Bobby Barnes told the U.S. Congress in an address on high school steroid use. "Coaches are culpable in their drive for success measured by winning at all costs," he added.

"If you want to get somewhere, you really don't have a choice," Anderson says. "There's a lot of pressure on the team. Peers will make fun of the skinny kids. The parents obviously want their kids to be good. The coaches are willing to turn their head," he adds.

Jennifer Kern, director of Drug Testing Fails Our Youth, says any drug test is a waste of resources and an invasion of privacy. "There is no easy solution for this kind of problem. Politicians look for a quick fix or a silver bullet, magical solution. That's a falsehood with such a complex problem."

Currently, Paradise Valley is the only district in the state to randomly drug test athletes, but even those screenings do not detect steroid use. Last November Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio suggested all high schools within the county begin randomly drug testing their students. But even if instituted, the tests Arpaio is calling for would not detect the use of steroids.

Easy Access: Bigger is Better

"The way I usually hear about it, one kid will go down to Mexico, pick up something and deal it around school," says Chaparral senior and heavily-recruited football star Nick Neuenfeldt. Other athletes agree; steroids usually come from teammates or local dealers and are almost always from Mexico.

In 2003, the Buckeye football players caught with steroids said their drugs came from Mexico. Two years ago, Sports Illustrated reported on some spring training Major Leaguers who head south of the border to personally buy their "juice."

But recent police reports suggest Valley students need not drive that far. In late-August, Mesa Police arrested Scott and Toni Ferriss after discovering about $100,000 of steroids in their house.

The couple is charged with buying powder steroids, converting the drug to pill form, and selling the bottled capsules on the Internet. Hundreds of Web sites peddle steroids.

One site, complete with "40,674 active members" to answer injection and timing questions, explains, "[Steroids] can be purchased illegally through many different illegal sources. The 'big guy' at the gym, coaches, pharmacies.… The prices listed below may or may not be the prices that you pay for steroids in your area."

Next to that explanation, another button reads: "How to Beat Drug Tests."

Privacy Rights and Testing

Popular methods for fooling steroid tests are just one reason opponents say testing would be a waste of money. Others cite expensive costs and privacy rights as equal concerns.

"Are you going to test that badminton player?" asks high school sports physician Dr. Dicke. "[Testing] is a good thing to discuss, but obviously it has cost implications and some would say civil rights implications."

"It would be great to have a level playing field," Dicke adds of testing. "But I think education is the best way to try and change, more open discussion in schools and with the coaches."

Baseball coach Bryan Burger disagrees. "I would love to say that just educating the kids would be enough, but kids know smoking is gonna kill them, and they still smoke. They're going to have to find a way of random testing," he says.

As college and professional athletes increasingly grow bigger, faster and stronger, scholarships and big money drive some promising athletes to take big risks. "At the schools where the kids can get access to [steroids], with what we're seeing in the Major Leagues and them knowing they can make $100,000 or more as an 18-year-old. If it's not a big issue now, it's going to be," Burger says.

As for privacy rights, Supreme Court case law dictates that as high school athletes, students willingly forfeit their Fourth Amendment right to protection from illegal searches. "The logic behind allowing drug testing for athletes is that it's 'voluntary,'" says Jennifer Kern of Drug Testing Fails Our Youth.

Some Valley students are eager to see testing level the field. "If they had random drug testing I think that would be more beneficial to the state," says Tyler Porras.

In a separate interview, Tyler's father Tom Porras agreed testing would be great, but it simply costs too much for high schools. "It [steroid use] is out there, but not enough to justify the costs. From what I hear it costs a lot of money," says Porras, a former NCAA Division I and semi-pro quarterback.

Anderson, who played 5A varsity football as a freshman, says steroid use by teammates and competitors put him at a disadvantage. "This isn't the pros or college, but it's not fair," he says. "I come from a long line of natural talent. My dad was an All-American in Iowa. My freshman year ASU and UCLA sent me letters. Sophomore year I had the same letters. Next year we come back from summer and five or six guys have 25, 30 pounds more muscle," Anderson says.

"I was getting the letters. And steroids put me out of the race, but I'm not going to take steroids. Football doesn't mean that much to me."

What do you think about steroid use among athletes? Let us know by calling our Sound Off line at 480-391-6519. or visit our Sound Off webpage

For legal reasons, some of the names of sources under the age of 18 have been changed in this story.