New anonymous online survey aims to protect athletes from doping | Recreation and Leisure Studies

The former director of athletics who navigated the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ’s football team through the worst doping scandal in Canadian university history, has developed an anonymous online survey for teams that he hopes will protect athletes from dangerous behaviours.

Developed with ��ݮ��Ƶ researchers, Bob Copeland says the pioneering assessment tool — Sport Integrity 360 — gives coaches and management a better picture of how their athletes understand and follow policies relating to hazing, alcohol abuse, harassment, codes of conduct and performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

“It’s a unique diagnostic tool that in a couple of weeks can help you understand how your policy environment is doing and how all your members feel,” said Copeland, an alumnus of Recreation and Leisure Studies. “The results can act as a strong preventive measure and provide the kind of insights most varsity and amateur organizations in Canada don’t have the time and capacity to collect alone.”

Tool evaluates attitudes toward high-risk behaviours

Sport Integrity 360 works by helping coaches and administrators identify any gaps in understanding related to integrity policies. It also evaluates the attitudes of student-athletes, leadership and administrators toward high-risk behaviors. Reporting structures, communication protocols, and accountabilities are measured and assessed as part of the process.

“I’ve had many experiences where there may be a great personal conduct policy in place, but unless it’s communicated properly among members, unless it’s understood by all the members, it’s not effective,” said Copeland, who in 2010 made the decision to test the entire team for PEDs after a player on the team was arrested and found to be in possession of these banned substances; after nine doping violations were revealed through this process, the ��ݮ��Ƶ football program was suspended by the university for one year.

Administered through an anonymous online survey, the tool is able to measure the perspectives of multiple stakeholders within an organization, from leadership and administrators down to the staff and athletes. It’s this 360 degree perspective that is so powerful in understanding policies that are typically top-down in their approach, added Copeland.

“Research suggests that performance enhancing drug use might be more prevalent within teams and organizations that lack sufficient ethical leadership and support systems to encourage and reinforce ethical behavior,” said Luke Potwarka, a professor in ��ݮ��Ƶ's Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, who helped develop the tool.

Success after scandal

Following the football scandal, Copeland was a driving force behind Succeed Clean, a community outreach program to teach young people about the risks of using PEDs. He also became chair of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) performance enhancing drugs education task force and a member of a national task force on the use of performance enhancing drugs in football.

The university’s decision to suspend ��ݮ��Ƶ’s football program for a year, while at the time unpopular, is one he stands by.

“At the end of the day, it was about creating a safe environment for student-athletes,” he said. “The team became stronger for it, and it showed in the culture on the field and in the locker room.”

Sport Integrity 360 has already been pilot tested with more than 540 student-athletes, coaches, and administrators in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. “As an administrator, I could have used a tool like this,” he said. “It’s about communicating the policies and making sure there is a process for feedback. It’s about prevention.”

Sport Integrity 360 is offered through McLaren Global Sport Solutions Inc., a consulting firm based in Toronto, led by Western University law professor Richard McLaren.