ABSTRACT
In this chapter Doug found out “You can run, but you can’t hide from yourself.” He took on every coaching opportunity that injected his life with light, hoping to cancel out his internal darkness. It was during this time he joined the coaching staff of the Guelph Storm Hockey Club as their strength and conditioning coach and met lifelong mentors and friends Mike Kelly, James “Jim” Rooney, EJ McGuire and Dr. Neil “Doc Wid” Widmeyer. Doug started a business, Ironwill Strength and Conditioning, where he provided off-season training for many young NHL and OHL hockey players seeking to make it big. During these years, Doug met Neal Young, or “Woody,” as he affectionately calls him, on his work platoon, and they embarked on a lifelong friendship as they both rose in the ranks of the Guelph Police Service. In 2005, they promoted Doug to the rank of Sergeant.
In 2007, Doug hit rock bottom, responding as a Road Sergeant to a medical call for service with his shift where a two-year-old girl drowned in the bathtub. Their heroic efforts to save the little girl were not enough, and she died that day. It was here that Doug finally called EAP and sought the metal health help he needed to find “his light.”
