Coach serves sobering alcohol facts

Youthful drinking steals more than innocence from young drinkers, according to former champion runner and Olympic coach John Underwood.

For athletes, one drunken episode wipes out 14 days of training.

"That's a huge price tag," he said. "These are things I share with athletes."

Speaking Tuesday at the third annual town-hall meeting in Kalispell on underage drinking, Underwood said studies have found that binge drinking impairs the brain longer than the night of partying does.

He said alcohol damages the brain's ability to send signals to the muscles. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to make the connection, he said.

"Your brain operates your body," he said.

A former NCAA All-American distance runner and World Masters Champion, Underwood coached or advised more than two dozen Olympians. A crusader for drug-free sports, he holds three International Olympic Solidarity diplomas for coaching.

As founder and director of The American Athletic Institute, Underwood made a reputation examining athletics and recreational drug use. He performed the only case study of the residual effects of alcohol on elite athletic performers.

But Underwood said he finds the greatest satisfaction working to keep all youths, not just athletes, free of alcohol and drugs. Because a majority of students participate in sports, he said, the alcohol-athletics connection resonates.

"Sports is a great vehicle for prevention work," he said.

Sponsored by the Stop Underage Drinking in the Flathead Coalition, Underwood spoke at Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Whitefish high schools, Kalispell Junior High School and other venues before his presentation at the WestCoast Outlaw Inn.

He said he found the Flathead "light years ahead of areas with many more resources" in the battle to stop underage drinking. Recent surveys showed a notable drop in youth drinking credited to the coalition of law enforcement, treatment and education in the valley.

He praised the no-tolerance efforts of the multi-jurisdictional Alcohol Enforcement Team coordinated by Travis Bruyer. Their efforts, subsidized by grant funding, resulted in 2,480 arrests for underage drinking in less than two years.

Underwood urged the community not to let improvements lessen its vigilance.

"You have some of the highest [rates of] underage drinking in the country," he said.

When youth binge drinking crosses the line to alcoholism, life-altering changes take place in the brain. Underwood quoted statistics that show 3 million teenagers in the United States qualify as alcoholics.

Researcher Susan Tapert found that binge drinking throughout adolescence may profoundly impact the final stages of brain development.

"If a kid drinks between 12 and 21, it's going to be structural brain damage," the speaker said.

Underwood said studies discovered that the areas affected involve decision-making and moral reasoning. Damage in these regions holds devastating consequences for the person as well as society.

"They can't tell the difference between right and wrong," he said.

Underwood places responsibility for underage drinking on societal acceptance, combined with a pack mentality that drives youths. He pointed to the peer pressure of just five or six people gathered together.

"Think of hanging out with 100 kids," he said. "They get together in huge groups to party."

Underwood, who lives in New York, detailed a party there that attracted 350 youths to a home when the parents were out of town. It ended with the floor joists collapsing, sending the main floor into the basement.

"You don't want your kid at that party," Underwood said.

He said that young people don't ask themselves if their actions might end in disaster, triggering a knowing laugh from young members of the audience.

He said teenagers think that their party antics make for good stories when they return to school after a weekend of drinking.

Funneling of alcohol, the latest craze, has swept the country. It involves pouring beer or straight alcohol into a funnel with a plastic tube attached for massive ingestion of liquor in minutes.

Few of the young drinkers realize that 12 to 24 ounces of concentrated spirits can kill them. He said the potential for alcohol poisoning exists every Friday and Saturday night.

"This is today's youth - just-do-it thrill seekers," Underwood said. "We're saying don't do it. You've got to jump in and say underage drinking by kids is not right."

Danger exists even for young people who attend the parties but don't drink. Others under the influence put them in danger of physical assault, rape and other crimes.

Underwood discounts the idea that drinking comes from youths not having enough to do or from media glamorization. He said adults and youths take no personal responsibility.

"The most important thing is what's failing - it's parents," he said. "Adults have to set the standard, raise the standard for kids and hold them accountable."

Underwood said the same five things that make sports teams great also make for great families: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride.

He said the risk of underage drinking falls proportionately with the degree of parents' involvement in their children's lives. Research targets the danger years as beginning as early as the sixth grade and rising steeply through the seventh and eighth grades.

"Seventy percent are regular drinkers by their senior summer," he said.

According to Underwood, alcohol remains too accessible to youths. As many as a third of establishments sell alcohol to youths, stings by law enforcement show.

Too often, adults, even parents, willingly buy alcohol for those younger than 21. Underwood urged the audience to push for a "social host law" that allows law enforcement to prosecute parents or others who host underage-drinking parties in their homes.

"You're way behind in legislation," he said. "Your enforcement team is up to par. They need to take it to the next level."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.