This is my favorite time of the year.

School is in session, and the beginning of fall interscholastic sports causes us to pause and think how hard the young participants are working on playing fields across the state.

For herein lies the crux of the problem: the tender age of the athletes.

I spent 34 years of my life teaching and coaching young people. I consider the many hours I logged in the classroom and in the gym sacred time, for I treated the awesome responsibility of leadership akin to that of the priesthood. I really did.

Let’s face it. Parents and legal guardians share their offspring with coaches with the hope of personal and athletic improvement, always aware of the fact that these young players will be thrust into the environment of high-pressure sports.

In this day and age, especially, high school sports are big-time business. Coaches often come and go because a few overzealous fans or parents can lobby to unseat them. Rationale may be as simple as a win-loss record or lack of playing time for a particular player or two.

Televised professional sports have hurt the high school level of play. Coaches often succumb to the pressure of winning, and players are often adversely affected by everything from fancy playing style to dress code, or, quite frankly, the lack of quality grooming and dress.

For players, the fear in 2005 from this corner is the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances. Sports news is filled daily with stories of steroid use. Only the naive would believe that anabolic drugs haven’t made their way into the veins of young Maine athletes.

For parents comes this: Never lose sight of how hard these young charges are working every day.

Never lose sight of their age, their egos, and the inherent pressures which accompany playing high school sports under the spotlight.

I know players who are now adults, who have never lived down that missed field goal, free throw, or ground ball at third base in the big game.

Most parents have never played under the hot lights of a pressurized game. Most parents have never felt the sting of defeat a buzzer-beating halfcourt shot brings.

And consequently, most parents vicariously live out their own mediocre athletic careers through their own kids.

Young people are subjected at home to just the right play to win the game; just the right lineup; and just the right coaching move that will bring their teams the victory they have dreamed of all year long.

“What’s the matter with your coach” has been a prevalent theme from time and eternity at supper tables across the United States.

This method of pressure puts kids in harm’s way more than any strong-side linebacker in the open field can. Trust me when I tell you that.

For all the young players out there, I offer this tidbit of advice: Be true to your school and be true to yourself.

When you take the field of play, do it naturally. Make your muscles quicker and bigger the old-fashioned way: hard work in the weight room.

Stay off the health food supplements that walk a fine legal line.

You owe it to your precious liver to do so.

Getting on the Internet and ordering a shaky substance to enhance your performance is a dangerous gambit, my young friends.

Smart decisions by parents and players can make for a better season by far than succumbing to the aforementioned woes.

NEWS columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net