Sterling High: We're Sorry We Tipped Off Our Players to the Upcoming Steroids Test

Taking the "surprise" out of "surprise tests."

​Texas's efforts to test high school athletes for steroids have been pretty ineffective in finding high school athletes taking steroids, but maybe that's because Texas kids would never, ever do something like that.

Whether that's true or not, one Houston-area high school has been sanctioned by the state governing body for calling students the night before a "surprise" steroids test to tell them that, well, there was going to be a "surprise" steroids test.

Sterling High officials say it was all a misunderstanding and a mistake -- they wanted to make sure the student-athletes all showed up to take the test -- but the University Interscholastic League still hit them with a two-year probation.

"We made a mistake, but it was not out of malice," Sterling principal Sam Dominguez told the UIL board, according to the AP.

The steroids-testing program has been in place for three years, so you'd think people would know the rules by now.

The probation means Sterling could face stiff penalties if it is found to have violated the rules again.