Editor's Note: Community Care of West Virginia has shared this story about Bridgeport's C.W. Dent, who now works as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist. Dent, a 1999 Bridgeport High School graduate, is a former BHS star athlete who played college baseball on a scholarship, but his life took a turn when his emotional health led him to spend the next 19 years in active addiction and subsequently arrests, homelessness and an overdose. But Dent found the willpower to turn his life around and on March 1, he celebrated 41 months of being substance-free. 

 

by Melissa Parker

 

On a recent weekend in February, Charles “C.W.” Dent II took the necessary certification to become a high school baseball coach. For some, this may seem insignificant. But for the 41-year-old Dent, it was the first step in finally realizing a lifelong dream that just four years ago seemed forever beyond his reach.

“My dream was always to play college baseball, then become a teacher and coach,” said Dent, a Peer Recovery Support Specialist with Community Care of West Virginia. “My life didn’t work out that way. So to now be trusted with coaching and guiding kids after the things I’ve done and everything I’ve been through… it means the world to me.”

Growing up, Dent had what he called a perfect childhood. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to Bridgeport from Washington, D.C. A self-proclaimed sports fanatic, Dent took full advantage of the quality athletic programs the Bridgeport area had to offer. He was raised by hardworking and loving parents, was a good student and star athlete, and even secured a scholarship to further his baseball career at then Alderson Broaddus College. He had the whole world in front of him, he believed.

But despite his ideal upbringing and the anticipation of a bright future, during Dent’s first year of college, things took a turn that would change the course of the next two decades of his life.

“When the girl I had dated all through high school got pregnant with my daughter, I decided it was the right thing to quit college, get a job and support the family I was about to start,” Dent recalled. “Our relationship didn’t work out the way I planned. We split up, I saw my daughter less and less, and I felt like I had lost everything I had going for me. My dreams of playing college ball and becoming a coach were gone, and now I had also lost the family I gave it up for.”

 

Read the rest of the story HERE at Communiity Care of West Virginia. 

 

Editor's Note: Photos shown Dent today, as well as Dent when arrested from his past troubles. All photos used with the permission of Dent and Community Care of West Virginia.