He was not exactly sure what year it was or even the time.

 

Jason Nicholson does remember one thing for certain when the United States Marshal’s pulled over the vehicle he was in. Despite his state of mind, he felt – as he had many times – a sense of remorse.

 

“The Marshals pulled up and I’m looking and out comes (Marshal and city native) Dustin Hotsinpiller,” said Nicholson. “He was like a brother to me growing up and I was best friends with his brother (the late Derek Hotsinpiller). That one hit because I just thought ‘how did I get here?’ It was one of many moments pushing me to get to where I needed to be.”

 

It was one of many brushes with law enforcement Nicholson had. It was one of many, he admits, embarrassing and hurtful moments. Yet, as it had been many times in the past, it was not enough to make him go all in on change.

 

Jason Nicholson was an addict. He was hooked on meth. Hooked on heroin. Hooked on anything to get a high.

 

Because of that, Jason Nicholson – the owner of a doctorate in physical therapy – was also a criminal. He was a person, as he will tell you, that had let family and friends down over and over.

 

I knew Jason Nicholson. If you do not know Jason Nicholson, chances are good you know someone like him.

 

I got to know him back in the early 2000s when he was still in high school. I knew him afterwards when he got into coaching. And I knew the 2005 BHS graduate, not nearly as closely as those he would consider the closest in his circle, as he tumbled into a life that looked to have one of two outlets – death or life in prison.

 

That is the bad news. The good news? He is clean. He has been for approaching two years now.

 

“One year, 10 months and two days,” said Nicholson this past Monday when asked how long he had been clean.

 

If you have walked the path Nicholson has been on, you know the days you have been clean. A day clean is another day away from the bottom. Nicholson has been there too many times. It is a place of remorse, sadness, emptiness, and personal disdain.

 

In reality, it is a place to be avoided. I hope, as does Nicholson, that by telling his story someone may avoid the pitfalls he fell into. I hope, as does Nicholson, someone finding their way on to the fortuitous path he was once on realizes there is a way off – a better way.

 

Today, has been a good day for Jason Nicholson. Waking up sober makes it so. Being a former baseball coach, having a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in exercise physiology or a doctorate as mentioned earlier earned in 2012 from Hampton – things most would tout – does not make it a good day.

 

No, it is as simple as being sober. Being sober allows Nicholson to be happy, to try and make a difference, to make amends. He still believes there is more to do, further distances to go, but to know where he wants to go, one has to travel into his past.

 

“Understand everything I did is my responsibility, but I experimented with stereotypical pain medicine, Percocet, after hurting my shoulder in high school,” said Nicholson. “In college, I was like so many others with Xanax, marijuana, and alcohol and figured I was just a partier.

 

“As I got older,” he continued, “things got bad.”

 

Nicholson allowed another injury to open up the door to the addiction. He was coaching American Legion baseball in 2011 and hurt his back. He was prescribed Percocet for three years and in order to keep the pain down the dosage was upped.

 

“That’s the point where things started,” he said. “Things just began to unravel.”

 

For three years that included his hurt back, surgery, and a pair of car wrecks, Nicholson was on Percocet. Eventually, his doctor and surgeon opted not renew his prescription.

“I went through withdraw and got Oxy (Oxycodone) 30s off the street and they’re pretty strong,” said Nicholson, who was coaching freshman basketball also at the time he struggled. “The bad thing, I was struggling long before that, at the latest 2012, and I didn’t realize how bad I was.

 

“Did I hit rock bottom? You could say I did,” he continued. “I hit it a bunch.”

 

By 2015, Jason Nicholson went from pills to heroin. The reason was not hard to fathom. The drug was cheaper and stronger than the prescription pills he had been buying.

 

“I was in a bad way. My dad died in 2015 and I went off the rails,” he said. “The worst part is I promised my dad before he died, I would get clean. Instead, I had a connection in Pittsburgh, and I was selling and using heroin. I wasn’t proud of it, but I was feeding my addiction and that was what mattered.”

 

Through it all, he found his way to the detox center at the Summit Center. He was there for eight days. Bridgeport’s Ben Randolph got him there.

 

“In my mind, and it’s an addict’s mind, I thought I could go right back out after that and didn’t do too bad. I got high a few times and ended up going to Italy with my grandparents,” said Nicholson. “I found out while I was there, I was getting a $100,000 settlement from the car wreck I was in, and I knew right away when I got back home, I was going to get high again. This time, I started doing meth.

 

“As bad as things were going to get, that first trip to the Summit Center was important,” said Nicholson. “I have Ben Randolph, and also Lou Ortenzio, to thank for that because the seed of getting better was planted.”

 

It would take years to fully sprout.

 

Nicholson said Randolph was the one who started it. And he refused to not take him, despite the fact Nicholson was getting high in the bathroom as Randolph was making the effort to get him there.

 

It may seem odd Nicholson saw that as the turning point. Over the course of the next year and a half, Nicholson would find himself with 10 misdemeanor cases and 12 total charges from shoplifting to simple possession to trespassing. As one may expect, he also found himself in the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County.

 

The problems were plentiful. In July 2017, Nicholson was involved with a situation of “ripping off” drug dealers and heading to Indianapolis, which, among other things, led to a bond revocation hearing in Harrison County magistrate court. And, somehow, it got even worse.

 

“I actually overdosed in the courtroom,” said Nicholson.

 

From there, it was back to jail. Then on to rehabilitation in East Stroudsburg, Pa. where he managed to get himself kicked out after 10 days.

 

Eventually, he went to intensive outpatient rehabilitation for one and a half months in New Jersey. From there, he moved to Clarksburg into a sober living facility.

 

“I made it through the intensive outpatient treatment but managed to get kicked out of the sober living house,” said Nicholson. “Ironically, I wasn’t using, but refused to follow the rules. I blamed the people in charge for what happened because I still hadn’t learned to take responsibility for my actions.”

 

Nicholson’s up and down time continued after the rehabilitation. He was now selling drugs and hanging with the same crowd that he knew was not good for him. Eventually, he started to get high again and in May of 2018 he got a DUI in Morgantown.

 

“It was just more of the same stuff,” he said.

 

Then, in May of 2018, it all came to a head. A drug deal gone bad turned into an armed robbery and other felony charges in Morgantown.

 

“I was facing 12 years to life,” said Nicholson. “Part of me didn’t care. Myself and my soon-to-be wife lost custody of our son and just didn’t feel like I had anything to live for.”

 

As the court process proceeded, Nicholson said he was still getting high. Despite that, the judge in the case offered him a plea deal. It was finally the deal that hit a nerve – it stuck.

 

“He offered to drop all the charges with the exception of night-time burglary,” said Nicholson, who let the drugs bring his once robust body down to 152 pounds at its peak. “He offered me alternative sentencing.”

 

The alternative was to do rehabilitation – intensive outpatient rehabilitation again – at a facility called Miracles Happen in Wheeling. He went, it worked, and he scored a major victory with more to come.

 

“The big thing after that my soon-to-be-wife had our daughter and Child Protective Services really went through a process with us. We got full custody,” said Nicholson. “That was one of many game changers.”

 

As he began to get sober, he looked back on losing his cousin to a drug overdose. He looked back to the death of his best friend, Derek Hotsinpiller, and he knew the grief that preventable and unpreventable death had on loved ones.

 

“I know when I was using, I couldn’t process death and struggled knowing close people to me were gone, but I soon realized my situation was preventable,” he said. “I did not want my mom to be without a son and I knew what I was doing was slowly killing my grandparents. When the fog lifted, I could see that and it was another big step.”

 

The staff at Miracles Happen helped with that. A big thing they showed Nicholson was what life was like after addiction.

 

“I thought once you got clean life would be boring. They showed me that wasn’t the case, and they were right,” said Nicholson. “The place helped save me.”

 

Nicholson’s words about being saved there are not hyperbole. In fact, he is currently working as a tech at the same facility in Wheeling and also is living in the city.

 

“There is an overwhelming sense of gratitude to give back … This is an avenue to do that and let others who have been where I’ve been know there’s a different way to live,” said Nicholson.

 

Nicholson credits the 12-step recovery process as well as another life saver.

 

“I’ve made amends with my family, I go to the cemetery and talk to my father to let him know I finally am clean,” said Nicholson as his voice cracked with emotion. “I owe so much to my mother and grandparents because they should have abandoned me, and they didn’t. You can’t pay them back unless you stay clean.”

 

Nicholson said he is the happiest he has ever been. He said used to make nearly $100,000 as a physical therapist and was “miserable.” That has changed making a fraction of that today.

 

“I’m defining myself now; not the drugs, not the felony, not the past,” said Nicholson. “I’m defining myself by making someone’s day better. I’m defining myself by being a good father, son, grandson, and soon-to-be husband.”

 

And he wants those who have helped to know he will never be able to pay back the debt he owes. Along with his mother and grandparents, he pointed to Coach Robert Shields, Jerome Axton, Edward Oliverio, and Pam Hotsinpiller.

 

He pointed to the women he will marry on the second anniversary of being sober – this Sept. 10 – Sarah McGaughey.

 

“She went through it all with me from 2016 to now. She has stuck by my side through thick and thin; through all of it,” said Nicholson, who would like to move back to Harrison County and help those looking for recovery. “She is truly a God send.”

 

As is his daughter - Adalynn Gayle Nicholson. That middle name, he wants people to know, is his father’s name.

 

“I live for them and I’m alive because of them and those I’ve mentioned. I’m sure there are others that have helped, like Ben (Randolph) and Lou (Ortenzio) and if I didn’t mention you, I still am thankful for you. Because of those people, I’m lucky to not be dead or in state prison,” said Nicholson, now 34. “I’m lucky to have today, and a real chance at tomorrow.”

 

Editor's Note: Top three photos show Jason Nicholson at his worst times - including two West Virginia Regional Jail mug shots and pointing to his bloodied face and not caring about it during a drug-induced incident. The photos after that show Nicholson in various forms of his trip of being sober, including working out, being a soon-to-be-husband and enjoying his time as a father. All photos courtesy of Jason Nicholson.