Support System:Addict II Athlete Brings Sports-Based Formulato the Recovery Process

They wear their identity proudly.

Emblazoned across T-shirts and tank tops at local sporting events are the words “Addict II Athlete.” Every single person wearing such apparel has a story. More specifically, a success story.

Addict II Athlete (AIIA) is a nonprofit organization founded by licensed mental health and substance use disorder counselor Blu Robinson, whose practice is in Orem. The organization offers free support group services for those dealing with mental illness, addiction, trauma, and loss. Weekly, forty-five-minute meetings feature a unique combination of lessons and discussions—based on positive psychology and sports metaphors for life—followed by a workout. Sweats are de rigueur in winter; in the warmer months, attendees come clad in shorts and singlets.

AIIA currently has six active chapters throughout Utah and one in Arizona. Here in Washington County, the group connects November through March at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays at the St. George Library Community Room. From April to October, members gather at 7:00 p.m. at Vernon Worthen Park. Chapter coach Judy Berrocal, who has spent the last seven years as a counselor at Lions Gate Recovery, makes sure the meetings happen and that every attendee is seen and heard. For her, the group has literally been a lifesaver.

Growing up in Utah County, Judy watched as her father, who struggled with addiction, became incarcerated. Later, physical and sexual abuse became a part of her life. To blot out the pain, she turned to alcohol and marijuna at the age of ten; meth followed three years later. Pregnant at nineteen, she entered an abusive marriage with her baby’s father. She remained in the relationship for thirteen years and had three children, one born with physical disabilities. For more than two decades, drugs and alcohol were a daily part of her life.

She thought she’d hit bottom when, during a family outing—though she had not yet used that day—she accidentally backed her car over her two-year-old son, ending his life. She lost custody of her oldest daughter; her middle child remained in a care facility until her chromosomal-caused disabilities claimed her life as well. By 2011, Judy had accumulated a lengthy list of criminal violations and stints in jail. Fortunately, she found a judge willing to recommend that she receive probation pending completion of a comprehensive drug treatment program. But after twenty-three years of addiction, the process was rough going.

“I was so lost; I didn’t know what to do,” Judy recalls. “I had been using since I was ten, so I had no idea what was normal. In recovery, they tell you that you have to change everything about your lifestyle. But I didn’t know what that would look like; I was still hanging out with the wrong people.”

In another stroke of luck, Judy’s group counselor happened to be Blu Robinson. Watching her struggle to make smarter life choices, he suggested that she consider joining his support group, Addict II Athlete. 

“That’s when my love-hate relationship with crepe paper began,” Judy says, laughing raucously. “Blu got me to a meeting, but more importantly, he got me into one of the community service projects Addict II Athlete does each month. At the time, they were making a float that would be in a parade. So every day after treatment, I spent hours poking crepe paper with a pencil. That was when I started making positive connections.”

Very slowly, those connections included Judy’s daughter, Tawni Quintanilla, from whom she had long been estranged. Tawni was initially hesitant to join her mother in any of AIIA’s group activities, but Judy was eager to repair the many bonds broken during her addiction. “Tawni was fourteen when I found this organization. For years prior, she’d said, ‘Nope, I’m not doing anything with you.’ But through this group, she started gaining trust in the people around me; then she started trusting in me,” Judy says.

Today, Judy and her co-coach, Ashley Sorensen, welcome as few as five people (during the winter months) to their weekly meetings and more than twenty when the weather turns warm. Ashley, a mother of seven who triumphed over her own battle with addiction, is also a proud graduate of the drug court program.

AIIA is now a familiar presence at many of the events presented by the City of St. George Race Department, where members staff aid stations and shout words of encouragement at athletes passing by. “I have so much love for the Addict to Athlete crew!” notes Jess Lindsay, race specialist and volunteer coordinator for St. George Races. “They are always the first to step up and volunteer for whatever we need them to do. They have this incredible way of making the toughest work look effortless, and they do it all with a genuine smile.”

In addition to their support at local races, AIIA is a mainstay at softball tournaments, and they field teams in the City of St. George–sponsored Red Rock Recovery League. They also host the Aaron Navarro Memorial Clean & Sober Tournament, which draws nearly eighty teams from throughout the United States to the Canyons Sports Complex for a three-day contest each year.

For Judy, AIIA provided a way back to sobriety and to her family: she and Tawni have run countless races together, and her seven-year-old grandson, Isaac, has been passing out water and picking up trash at race aid stations since he was four.

Judy often shares stories about her life with those she counsels, drawing on crucial lessons learned. “I’m very open with my clients; I’m not afraid to say the things I need to,” she confirms. “I no longer have shame about who I was because it allowed me to be understanding and open and help my clients understand that it’s okay—that they’re okay.

“Sometimes,” she admits, “when I’m at an aid station at 5:00 a.m., I struggle. But what Addict II Athlete is doing there is much greater than us; it allows us to get outside of ourselves. We understand that it’s not just a physical battle; it’s a mental one as well.”

More information about Addict II Athlete can be found at https://www.addicttoathlete.com/