July 21 - Athletic Trainer Named to Governor’s Task Force

Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed a landmark executive order creating a task force to examine steroid use in high school, making New Jersey the first state to take a comprehensive approach to addressing the growing problem of steroid use among high school athletes.

Named to the 18-member task force was Timothy Lengle, the head athletic trainer at Rider since 2002.

“This should be an interesting undertaking, to see what we can come up with” said Lengle, who has served as the head athletic trainer for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, has been an instructor of Sports Medicine at West Chester University, and is a member of the Governmental Relations Committee for the Athletic Trainers Society of New Jersey.  “There are a lot of people from a lot of different areas that will give us a wide range of perspectives. We’ll mainly be targeting the high school area, but will delve into other areas as well.”

Under the executive order, the task force will conduct a study to determine the scope of the problem in New Jersey. The task force will organize a statewide educational summit and will hold hearings to gather public input on the issue.

“I didn’t realize how big a deal this really was until the press conference this week.”

The task force members will help develop a statewide policy for high school athletes and will deliver a report to the Acting Governor by December 1.