Warriors get powerful message on addiction from former players
Hockey players have a reputation for being tough guys, but sometimes the toughest thing they have to do is admit they need help.
That was the message from former Western Hockey League and B.C. Hockey League players Steve Bull and Nathan MacMaster who visited the West Kelowna Warriors’ Junior A hockey team last Wednesday to talk about their recovery from addiction.
The stop at the Warriors’ locker room in West Kelowna’s Royal LePage Place was part of a three-day tour of BCHL teams that included Chilliwack, Merritt and Salmon Arm.
Both men are recovering addicts and now work for Together We Can Addiction Recovery and Education Society.
“My story is ugly,” admitted Bull, who struggled when he left home at 15 to play junior hockey.
“I used to call it homesickness, but it was actually debilitating anxiety,” said Bull. “But when I drank alcohol, it went away. Alcohol became my coping mechanism.”
Bull told the players there were consequences when he drank. He was sent home every season except one.
After hockey, Bull’s life continued in a downward spiral because of addiction. His wife divorced him, he started using cocaine and by 40 he was homeless.
Bull was 49 years old, living outside on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side and 70 pounds underweight when he was given the opportunity to come to Together We Can as a client.
“I was completely broken — emotionally, mentally and physically,” he said.
Now 54, Bull has been sober just over 3 1/2 years and works as an intake services manager for Together We Can.
At 25 years old, MacMaster is not much older than the BCHL players he was talking to.
He left home to play in the Western Hockey League at 16, experienced anxiety and depression and turned to substance abuse.
MacMaster didn’t sugar-coat his unflattering story of getting drunk and doing ecstasy every day, covering his body in metholated ointment so he didn’t reek like alcohol.
“I went from having Ivy League schools talking to me at 15 years old to eating out of dumpsters at 23,” he said, eventually calling Bull from a detox centre in the Kootenays.
MacMaster is coming up on two years sober and now works in intake services for Together We Can.
Bull hoped the visit would plant the seed for those who will suffer substance abuse issues that there’s no embarrassment in asking for help.
“It actually takes strength and courage to reach out and ask for help whether it’s addiction or anything else that’s going on with somebody,” he said.
Warriors player Lucas Cullen, 18, said he could relate to Bull and MacMaster’s talk. Cullen found the year he lived away from home to play hockey in Calgary difficult, adding that was one of the reasons he chose to return to Kelowna.
The are a lot of pressures in junior hockey and the culture of hockey teaches players to be tough and play through if their legs or hips hurt, said goaltender Cole Demers, 18.
“Having guys like this come in and talk to us really shows that there are people that have been through more severe struggles than us, but there’s people that want to help,” added Demers.
Together We Can is one of Canada’s leading treatment centres for men. The non-profit society’s mission is to educate men and families who struggle with the challenges of substance misuse.
For more information, go online to twcvancouver.org.