Media Alert

*** Editors: OHSU ATLAS and ATHENA trainers will introduce the programs to athletes and coaches and begin implementation on Monday, Nov. 28. Media are invited; please confirm attendance by calling 503-575-6556.

WHAT

The Dalles-Wahtonka High School and South Wasco County Junior/Senior High School have been selected to participate in the Paul R. Vogt Raising Champions Scholarship Program. Each school will receive a $5,000 award to implement Oregon Health & Science University’s nationally recognized health promotion and drug prevention programs for teen athletes, called ATLAS and ATHENA.

The Raising Champions Scholarship Program enables two Oregon high schools to implement ATLAS and ATHENA each year. It was created through a generous estate gift from The Dalles native Paul “Bob” Vogt. Vogt, who passed away in April 2009, helped establish the Paul R. Vogt Health Promotion and Sports Medicine Endowed Professorship at OHSU, which benefits the Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine and the work of Kerry Kuehl, M.D., Dr.P.H. -- including ATLAS and ATHENA.

“Paul often discussed his disappointment with national sports figures who were not the role models he felt they should be. He felt athletics were losing the beneficial impact they should have on young people. As he came to understand ATLAS and ATHENA, he decided it was necessary for every student-athlete to go through these programs. He believed this program was essential to recapturing the healthy mission of sport,” said Kuehl, an associate professor of medicine in the OHSU Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine.

WHEN

10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday, Nov. 28, 2011

WHERE

The Dalles-Wahtonka High School, 220 E. Tenth St., The Dalles, OR 97058

DETAILS

ATLAS (Athletes Training & Learning to Avoid Steroids) and ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives) teach teen athletes about healthy sports nutrition and strength-training alternatives to the use of alcohol, illicit and performance-enhancing drugs, and address the connection between young women in sports, disordered eating behaviors and body-shaping drug use. OHSU physicians and scientists pioneered ATLAS and ATHENA with research that involved 50 schools and more than 4,000 adolescents. Today, the programs are in 35 states in the United States and have reached more than 60,000 high school student athletes.