All interscholastic High School Athletes in New Jersey play under the rules and regulations of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).  There is a "new and improved" testing program for High School athletes, The NJSIAA Drug Free Sport AXIS; under AXIS there is a new Banned Substance List published for the 2017-18 Athletics season.  The list has expanded to include Stimulants and other substances that are found in Energy Drinks and other over the counter supplements.  If parents and their children are not conscientious of what is consumed, they could test positive for one of the substances on the banned list.  One of the reasons that the NJSIAA and High School coaches want to prohibit High School Athletes from using Energy Drinks is because some studies show that regular use can leader to Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

Press of Atlantic City Phillies and High School Sports Writer Mike McGarry joined The Sports Bash on Thursday and discussed the seriousness of the NJSIAA Banned Substances List:

"A lot of coaches are telling their players to watch for this stuff, watch out for the Energy Drinks that you just buy over the counter and stuff like that, a lot of trainers preach caution to that.  The way it was explained to us, the limit of that stuff - you're not going to trip the Caffeine marker by downing three or four Wawa 20 ounce Coffees before Kickoff and stuff like that....There's a lot of products out there that are iffy and a lot of trainers will tell you that today's players just can't, you just can't put stuff in your body without knowing what's exactly in it....The NJSIAA has really been at the forefront of, as far as around the country, as far as testing for Performance Enhancing Drugs and Stimulants and everything else....The NJSIAA devises that list, they don't come up with it on their own, they work with the drug lab out at UCLA that does the main testing for USADA and is one of the foremost drug testing facilities in the country....And they are holding these High School Athletes to almost the same standard that Olympic Athletes are."

Checkout what McGarry had to say about the upcoming 2017 High School Football season along with Phillies future with Rhys Hoskins and JP Crawford

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