Stigma lessens as Bears test negative Maine loses right winger to knee injury

ORONO – The arrest last month of University of Maine football star Stephen Cooper for steroid possession created fears about the potential of widespread steroid use within the Black Bear athletic program.

The latest drug test involving UMaine student-athletes, conducted in December by the NCAA, would appear to indicate otherwise.

All 13 of the UMaine football players who were randomly selected for drug testing after the Dec. 7 NCAA football playoff game at Georgia Southern tested negative for illegal substances, according to UMaine interim athletic director Paul Bubb, who received the results on Dec. 20.

“I wouldn’t say it was anything that was unexpected,” Bubb said of the negative tests. “Because the NCAA does do regular testing with our football and track programs, we do feel we’re on top of those issues.”

Cooper, an All-America linebacker for the Black Bears, pleaded guilty Dec. 19 at United States District Court in Bangor to possessing more than 1,200 pills of anabolic steroids. The hormones, though illegal and banned by the NCAA, are used to enhance athletic strength and performance.

Cooper, who was not among those tested at Georgia Southern, said he had never used steroids but was planning to use them after the college season in the hope of helping him earn a spot on an NFL roster.

In spite of the negative publicity generated by the Cooper incident, no UMaine football player has tested positive for steroid use since 1993, prior to when head coach Jack Cosgrove took over the program. A total of 26 UMaine football and track athletes were evaluated in November during a random test and all tested negative.

“Based upon the results we’ve seen over a course of years, there’s not reason to be concerned about widespread drug use,” Bubb said.

Back in October Bubb started work on developing and instituting a substance abuse education and drug testing program for UMaine student-athletes. He is confident such a program is needed.

“We’re going to focus on education as well as testing,” Bubb said. “We need to make sure everyone’s aware of what they can and can’t do. We need to be concerned about the students’ welfare and health issues, but testing also becomes a form of deterrent and I think those are important programs to have in place.”

Bubb indicated most Division I institutions employ some form of drug testing and that such a program will help UMaine educate its athletes and minimize the chances for abuse of steroids and other drugs, including alcohol.

All athletes remain subject to random drug testing at NCAA postseason competition sites.

Greyeyes out with knee injury

The University of Maine men’s hockey team will be without sophomore right winger Matt Greyeyes for at least a month after he suffered a knee injury in the third period of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Northeastern University.

“They told me it was a sprained MCL [medial collateral ligament] and I’d be out four to six weeks,” said Greyeyes, who had earned a regular spot as the right wing of the fourth line and had played in Maine’s last seven games.

He had appeared in just three of Maine’s first 15 games.

“It’s very disappointing. But I’ll battle back,” insisted Greyeyes, who injured while throwing a check.

“He was playing great,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “He was playing physical and that’s when he’s at his best.”

He had an assist and was minus-one in 10 games and had nine shots on goal.

But it was a crunching hit he applied in the third period of the Cornell game at the Florida Everblades College Hockey Classic that was cited by Whitehead and Maine senior right winger Gray Shaneberger for turning the game around in their come-from-behind 3-2 triumph last month.

On the positive front for Maine, goals leader Colin Shields will return for this weekend’s series at Merrimack College after missing four games with a cracked rib.

The junior right winger has 13 goals in 18 games along with seven assists.

He is one of four Maine players ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. College Hockey Online national statistics.

Shields’ seven power play goals ties him for seventh.

Senior center Marty Kariya is fifth in assists (25) and tied for eighth in points (36) and first-year goalies Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle are ranked in save percentage and goals-against average.

Howard is first in save percentage (.944) and second in goals-against average (1.52) while Doyle is tied for eighth (.928) and fifth (1.97), respectively.

Team-wise, Maine, 18-2-2 and tops in both national polls along with the Pairwise Rankings, is second in goals-against average (1.73); third in penalty-killing (88 percent); tied for fourth on the power play (25.9 percent) and fifth in goals per game (4.27).