Athletes learn about alcohol

"Alcohol and athletics -- what's the connection?" That was the question former Olympic wrestling champion Michael DiSabato posed to a roomful of student-athletes last night in Meyerson Hall. The program, "The Locker Room Talks: The Connection Between Athletes, Alcohol and Violence," was sponsored jointly by the Office of Health Education and the Athletic Department. The event -- mandatory for all freshman student-athletes -- has been held annually for the past three years to raise student-athlete awareness about the dangers and consequences of alcohol abuse. "We are sponsoring this program not as a result of concern that student-athletes here at Penn are at greater risk than any other students at Penn," said health educator Kate Ward-Gaus. "We are sponsoring it because we cannot ignore the national data which says that athletes drink more often and in greater volume than non-athletes." Ward-Gaus noted that alcohol use and abuse has been an unusually high-profile issue at Penn recently, with some students hospitalized for over-drinking and several allegedly alcohol-related assaults. "Our concern is not because we think that the problems are greater this year," she added. "Our concern is that our students are using the emergency room for alcohol poisoning, and that we are seeing headlines that involve assault by Penn students. This needs to stop." DiSabato -- who was a varsity wrestler, Big Ten medalist and NCAA qualifier at Ohio State University before his Olympic performances -- led the students at the event through a series of interactive exercises. When DiSabato asked several students to name the five most dangerous drugs off of a list he had compiled, not one of them included alcohol among the top three. But DiSabato noted, "In my opinion, alcohol is the most dangerous drug you encounter as college students." His list also includes cocaine, LSD, marijuana and steroids. DiSabato also spoke of the grim statistics concerning alcohol abuse among college students, noting that nearly 95 percent of all campus violent crimes, including sexual assault, are alcohol-related. And the two student groups most likely to commit sexual assaults are fraternity members and student-athletes, he stressed. "Being involved in a sexual assault will have a lasting impact on your life -- even if you don't get caught," he emphasized. "The reason I'm here is because I don't want to see you make bad choices -- there is so much talent in this room." DiSabato added that student-athletes are also more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, including driving under the influence, riding with an intoxicated driver and not using contraception. Despite going 20 minutes over the scheduled time, DiSabato's talk met with enthusiastic responses from the more than 200 students in attendance. "He stressed the relationships between alcohol and sports," College freshman and lacrosse player Amy Weinstein said. "It helped us to see things that we might not have noticed before."

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