The message was clear: Don't drink alcohol or use drugs, especially if you're an athlete.

On Tuesday morning, about 250 kids sat inside the Alto Street Boys & Girls Club gym listening to the anti-drug message of John Underwood, a former NCAA All-American, international-level distance runner, a World Masters champion and the current president and founder of the American Athletic Institute, a sports-consulting firm based in New York.

Seven-year-old Derek Torres understood the one-hour presentation.

"If you drink too much alcohol, it blocks the (brain) signals to give to your body," he explained to a reporter after the event. The message that drugs and alcohol can diminish athletic performance is important to him, he said, because he likes to play sports such as basketball, baseball and soccer with his father, Roberto Torres.

The event was held to introduce Life of an Athlete, a statewide alcohol- and drug-prevention program that officially launches today in Albuquerque. It focuses on middle-school and high-school athletes, who represent a significant population in any school, said Robert Zayas, associate director of the New Mexico Activities Association. The association is partnering with the Santa Fe Underage Drinking Prevention Alliance, the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the Santa Fe Public Schools to launch this new, online interactive program funded by the Department of Transportation.

"New Mexico leads the nation for kids who drink before age 13," Zayas said.

Data from the 2007 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey — the most recent available — indicated that 30.7 percent of New Mexico high-school students — and 33.9 percent of Santa Fe County high-school students — had consumed their first alcoholic drink before age 13.

The New Mexico rate was the highest rate among 39 states that reported similar data to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

Underwood focused his presentation on "choices." He showed slides of brain activity — and the lack of it — when teens drink alcohol or use drugs such as marijuana or methamphetamine.

Among the risks: Alcohol interrupts the sleep cycle, inhibits the ability to learn new information, and can cause loss of motor coordination, dehydration and a decrease in growth hormones. It also can inhibit the absorption of nutrients and affect both aerobic metabolism and endurance, all of which might negate the benefits of training, increase the chance of injury and slow healing times.

In addition to bringing this message to elementary-school students, Underwood is scheduled to train about 200 coaches who work in the Santa Fe Public Schools, said Skip Hemperley, athletics director for the district. According to Hemperley, nearly 50 percent of the district's students are involved in sports or sports-related activities.

Cynthia Delgado, community liaison with the Santa Fe Underage Drinking Alliance, said the program's goal is to get the community to talk about alcohol use. The purpose of a meeting for parents Tuesday night at Warehouse 21 was to give them ammunition to talk about drugs and alcohol with their children, she said.

"We want parents to say, 'alcohol is a drug, and I do need to talk to my kids,' " Delgado said.

While the 2007 Santa Fe County data shows that 52 percent of high-school students reported being current drinkers (at least one drink of alcohol in the past 30 days) at the time of the survey, "The good news is that 48 percent of teens don't drink. Not everyone drinks, and we have to recognize that," Delgado said.

Among the no-drinking group of athletes are Devante Pellegrin,16, a basketball and football player at Santa Fe High School who attended the Tuesday morning presentation along with his buddies, Jamal Cunningham, 15, who is visiting from Florida, Nick Martinez, 17, and Jordan Booth Homer, 16, both Santa Fe High School athletes. Hanging out with "the right friends, with real friends," is important to staying on the right path, Martinez said.

Contact Sandra Baltazar Martínez at 986-3062 or smartinez@sfnewmexican.com.