Dom Scalzo lived and breathed lacrosse. He was the first kid from his small Rochester high school to go Division 1, chasing a childhood dream of playing at Syracuse — until a nagging injury, a bottle of pain pills, and the slow pull of OxyContin took it all apart. What started as prescriptions became 30 pills a day, then shooting heroin, cocaine, and even vodka, as the identity he’d built his whole life around disappeared.
He holds nothing back about how far it went: getting kicked out of two schools, an arrest that ended his college career, bringing his own mother into the worst part of the city to buy drugs, overdose after overdose, and a stretch living homeless under a bridge in Brooklyn. He also carries the weight of everyone he lost along the way — more than 200 people over the years. This is the story of how a plane ticket from a near-stranger, a blunt counselor, and one simple phrase finally broke the cycle, and the life he’s built in the 14 years since: a father, an endurance athlete who runs 100-mile races, and a coach who helps high-performers rebuild their health and, quietly, their lives.
Follow Dom on Instagram (@dapperdon)
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