Al-Impics Provide Healthy Competition for Recovering Addicts

Baseball used to be everything to Eddie Fabro. Drugs and alcohol took that away from him when he was 14, but now he wants it back.

“As soon as I got out on that field, my blood starts pumping and the adrenaline gets going,” Fabro said, as he walked the grounds of the Live Again Recovery Home near Green Valley.

“I like the feeling of stepping into that batter’s box and waiting for the pitch to come at you,” he said. “And when I’m on the field, I love hearing that crack of the bat and snagging the ball.”

But for now, Fabro practices on a 40-foot stretch of dirt marked at each end by two steel poles sticking 18 inches out of the ground. He’s pitching horseshoes for the Al-Impics International on Saturday.

“It’s all in the grip,” he said, as he showed off his underhanded, four-knuckle toss.

Fabro will be one of more than 10,000 participants at the 21st annual competition for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts based loosely on the Greek Olympics. The event, which has been held since 1974 at Santa Clarita’s College of the Canyons, is the oldest and largest of its kind in the country, according to organizers.

No world records are threatened, but organizers and participants say the competition highlights the importance of athletics and exercise in addiction recovery.

“It’s kind of a holistic approach to recovery,” said Al-Impics founder Kurt Freeman. “You have your Alcoholics Anonymous and drug counseling, and social and group therapy, but recreation is important, too.”

Physical exercise allows recovering addicts to release tensions and alleviate anger inherent in many types of therapy.

“You’re going to be able to have a nice catharsis and be able to express yourself,” said Freeman, who had been director of Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley Rehabilitation Centers.

At the Live Again center, a six-month residential program with an emphasis on Christianity, about 30 of the 47 male residents plan on participating in the Al-Impics.

Jason Ramos, 29, had played volleyball in high school and coached a women’s volleyball summer camp before becoming involved with drugs. He is coaching the Live Again team in training for Saturday’s competition.

“They’re playing pretty well; they’re coming along great,” Ramos said during a break last week from practice.

Coaching recovering addicts, Ramos said, requires more patience because they tend to be more headstrong.

“I guess it’s the pride; it’s hard for them to submit,” said Ramos, who has been at the recovery center for four months. “As drug addicts, we never submitted to anything but our drug of choice.”

The physical exercise, Ramos said, allows the men to release the frustrations of being isolated from the outside world. Residents are allowed only periodic passes home during their stay at the 85-acre compound.

“It’s hard for us here,” Ramos said. “We do this to let go of the anger, the hurt, the missing of the wife or girlfriend.”

Fabro is back at Live Again after going through most of the program in 1991 and relapsing on a one-week pass.

“It was during Christmas Eve and I decided to go by a friend’s house,” Fabro said. “I was compromising with the non-alcoholic beer, but then I drank one beer and I couldn’t stop. I ended up drinking until the sun came up.”

The booze led to drugs and soon Fabro was back to his old habits. By September, 1992, he was back at Live Again, and he has been here ever since.

“I’m still young,” said Fabro, 23, of San Pedro. “I’m having fun here helping other people, so I see myself being here for another three to five years.”

Fabro, who coordinates athletic programs at Live Again, wants to stay on staff, even though he has completed the recovery program. He says he recognizes the outside world is a tougher place in which to stay clean, but he feels confident he won’t relapse again.

Mostly, though, he wants to start anew.

“I definitely don’t want to go back to San Pedro. It’s gotten real bad there and I don’t want any part of it,” he said.