A Life in Recovery: Dave Shand
As the issues woven into the fabric of hockey continue to surface, the process to solutions expedite. Among this conversation, is the topic of players living with mental illness. Within this group of leaders sparking change is Petes alumnus Dave Shand, who is on a crusade to educate his community and the hockey world about addiction and recovery.
Shand joined the Peterborough Petes halfway through the 1974-75 season, after playing a year and a half at the University of Michigan. Although he was playing hockey in Toronto for the Nationals during his OHL draft year while his parents were living out West, Dave’s mother was adamant about him attending school.
“That did not workout so I came back at Christmas in 1974 or 75,” chuckled Shand.
Although he only played the second half of his first year with the Petes, the defenceman had the opportunity to skate with one the of the club’s top rosters, dressing alongside the likes of Doug Jarvis, Doug Halward, Stan Jonathan and Pete Scamurra.
“We had a really good team and we lost in the OHL finals but the next year was my first full year in Peterborough we lost everybody, I think we lost nine guys who were drafted in the NHL draft.”
His following season the maroon and white were defined by a roster of rookies and series of injuries that left Dave without a single moment on the bench for one game; a tale most Petes from 1975-76 tend to recall when reflecting upon their year:
So that year was just a disaster, we had seven defencemen start the year, two tore their knees up and were out for the year and then Randy Johnston and Paul MacKinnon both got hurt and we were down to three defencemen and it was me and Gerry West and Gary Purden and so I played the entire game and those guys alternated on the left and I played on the right side the entire game.
Contributing to his fond memories in the lift lock city, was his head coach Roger Neilson. Shand describes the legendary leader as the best coach he ever had, and defines their bond as one that couldn’t be shaken.
“Once you’re one of Rogers boys you are always Roger’s boys. I would go up and talk to him during a morning skate where he was coaching, and he would continue to give me advice, if he saw something on film,” commented Dave.
Following his two years in Peterborough, Shand went onto be selected in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft by the Atlanta Flames. He spent four years in the South before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, capping his career in the NHL with the Washington Capitals in 1985. Dave summarizes his initial year with the Caps as one of his brightest years in hockey, “We had a really good run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, we lost to the Islanders in seven games and the last four games all went to overtime, but that was probably the best hockey I ever played and the best team I’ve ever been on.”
Along his path through professional hockey, Shand continued to plug away at his undergraduate degree, attending university part-time while playing for various cities. He attended Trent University, Georgia Tech and George Mason University.
In 1989, after playing hockey for four years in Austria, Shand retired his skates and immediately received a phone call from the head coach of the men’s hockey team at the University of Michigan. Red Berenson asked the Petes Alumnus to join him on the bench as an Assistant Coach, a request Shand eagerly filled as it provided and avenue for him to complete his first degree, “They worked the coaching schedule around my academic schedule.”
Shand wasn’t on campus long, before he received a nudge from Michigan’s Dean of Law to write the LSATs, which eventually lead to his admission into U of M’s law school.
“I’m really good at standardized testing. I don’t know why, its not hard for me,” explained Dave.
In 1995 Dave wrote the bar exam, and opened his own firm. Ironically his time on the ice didn’t completely come to an end, as the defenceman joined an alumni team, for an organization he never represented.
I did some legal work with Dennis Hextall who at that time was the President of the Detroit Red Wing Alumni, and they were struggling because they had a lot of old guys, guys in their 60’s who were still trying to play. They were trying to recruit a more competitive team and he asked me if I wanted to play for the Detroit Red Wing Alumni team, even though I didn’t play for the Detroit Red Wings, so I did that for 12 years.
Since being away from the arena, Shand has transitioned his law practice to represent alcoholics and addicts in scenarios like trying to get their drivers’ licenses back and intensive family law. This is a group of clientele near to Dave’s heart, as the former Pete is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for over 11 years.
“I went to rehab in 2008 I went to a 30 day in residential treatment for alcoholism then I got out and I got a sponsor. He walked me through a 12 step program and I go to a meeting everyday and have pretty well gone to a meeting everyday for 11 years.”
Even among his international travels to countries like Portugal, Dave maintains attendance at sobriety meetings. Much like his fellow athletes and professionals anyone at a distance revelled at Dave and what appeared to be his picturesque journey, however his lifestyle was anything but when the lawyer was forced into homelessness in 2008.
“I was homeless the last week in November, and my sobriety dated November 30, 2008 and I had no intention of getting sober, I just wanted to find a warm place to stay. I pretty much lost all the people I was representing, people are not in a hurry to get a drunk to represent them in a court of law,” explained Shand.
In assessing how addiction enters the lives of hockey players, Dave describes the personality makeup of the athlete as the largest barrier to their treatment, “Pride and ego kill more hockey players that are suffering then the actually suffering because we refuse to ask for help we refuse to look for solutions that are available and we would rather suffer and die, than ask for help from someone that knows what they are doing.”
As Dave reintegrated back into law newly sober, he was struck with the urge to help those who shared the disease that dragged him to rock bottom, “I would go to judges and prosecutors and they knew I was in recovery and I would say this is someone like me and I need your help. I have been astonished over the years the number of court personnel and case workers and social workers who go beyond anybody else’s expectations when someone wants to help themselves.”
Dave’s compulsion to provide support and guidance for alcoholics and addicts isn’t limited to his time in the office, the former Pete currently sponsors 15 addicts seeking recovery. Of the men he has helped throughout their sobriety, one includes a former heroin addict who has been clean for 10 years and has become a paramedic and firefighter. Among his proudest moments as a sponsor, supporting a farmer from Bad Axe Michigan living with alcoholism, tops the list.
He was 68 years old I went up to Bad Axe and presented him with his five year coin, when he came down to Ann Arbour for treatment no one would talk to him. Not his wife, not his kids, not his grandkids, nobody. When I went to give him his five year coin everybody was there sitting in the first row and everyone was sitting in the first row, he went from having nobody to having his whole family and having a real life again. The key to this program is living one day at a time, and not getting ahead of yourself.
Although Shand’s former teammates are beginning to enter retirement, he has no plans of slowing down, “As long as I’m able I am going to keep doing what I am doing, I have a life with purpose. I think everyone looks for that and I kind of drank my way into it but the life I have now is pretty special and I am not willing to give it up.”
Dave cherishes his relationships with his wife, four children, and grandchildren who are scattered throughout the United States. His life has evolved into the work of serving others, more specifically those who share his disease that is too frequently misunderstood. Although Shand has had massive success on the ice and in the court room, his greatest legacy will be that as an educator and spokesperson for alcoholics and addicts.
Want to hear more about Shand’s former coach Roger Neilson? Click here to learn more about Neilson’s impact towards the team.
