Four-minute read
Jerry CarinoAsbury Park Press
One morning 15 years ago, Erin Esposito could not find her bank card. She asked her then-fiancé Brian Esposito about it. He played clueless.
But he wasn’t. Brian had pulled the card from her purse to fund his opioid addiction.
“Later I caught him putting my bank card back, and when I checked my bank account it was overdrawn by $2,000,” Erin said. “That was the last straw, the day I kicked him out.”
With nowhere to go, Brian enrolled in a treatment program. It was the first step in a remarkable recovery journey.
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Today he and Erin are parents of two boys, ages 6 and 12. They live in Keyport and he works as a treatment advocate at Recovery Centers of America at Raritan Bay, guiding others who need help with addiction. He’s the founder of the Bayshore Sharks, a travel baseball team that includes his older son Henry. He’ll spend Father’s Day coaching on the diamond, and in August the Sharks will have the honor of playing in a tournament at Cooperstown, New York, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Fifteen years ago, I was a homeless drug addict and alcoholic,” said Brian Esposito, who is 43. “Now I have a career that I love, a wife and two amazing children. I get to keep giving back.”
He tells his players, who hail from Keyport, Union Beach and Hazlet: You help me more on a daily basis than I’ll ever be able to help you guys.
“They talk about the miracles in sobriety and recovery,” he said, “and I think I’m the definition of that.”
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'The best version of himself'
Brian Esposito grew up in Matawan and played football and baseball at Matawan High School. He earned a football scholarship to Wagner University but failed out; alcoholism already had taken hold, accelerating when his father fell into critical illness and later died. Brian was running his own landscaping company when, at age 28, the bottom fell out. Both Erin and his mother had enough.
“He hit extreme rock bottom and had to start from scratch,” Erin said.
So Brian entered detox and then the 12-step recovery process. Living in Florida at the time, he flourished to the point where he got hired as a therapist to help others walking that walk. He reunited with Erin, married and became a father.
“Once we had our first son, he knew he had to be the best version of himself for our children,” Erin said. “He never looked back.”
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Five years ago they moved back to the Bayshore and Brian began working for Recovery Centers of America at Raritan Bay, a drug and alcohol inpatient and outpatient treatment facility serving Northern and Central New Jersey and southern New York state.
“I’m not your typical therapist, being a guy who’s in 12-step recovery,” he said. “I always like to preach the willingness piece: You have to have a desire to make changes.”
To help keep his eye on the ball, so to speak, Esposito founded the Bayshore Sharks in 2019.
From the start, the players’ parents knew exactly where he was coming from.
“I’m very big on being open about my recovery,” he said. “When I started this baseball team I told all the parents, ‘Listen, I’m a recovering addict and alcoholic. I don’t need you guys to find that out (elsewhere) and think I’m hiding from my past.’”
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A reminder in the wallet
Hazlet resident Denise Rolon’s son, Jacob Vargas, plays on the Sharks.
“I thought that was courageous to put that out there to the parents. It really gave me a sense of who he was,” she said. “He wanted the parents to know what his life’s mission is."
As a “team mom,” Rolon helps Esposito with the administrative side of running a travel team.
“Brian has stepped up as a father figure for Jacob, whose father isn’t in the picture as much as Jacob and I would like,” she said. “He’s never faltered with respect to his investment with the boys. He works hard to connect with them and he does that with a lot of people. He’s always had their best interests at heart.”
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The trip to play at Cooperstown, in particular, is the culmination of years of effort.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of core memories that he’s creating for the boys, which is really exciting,” Rolon said.
Esposito’s own children know the general outline of his journey. Henry, who turns 12 today, has accompanied him to recovery-oriented meetings.
“He’s told me, ‘Daddy, I’m really proud of you, that you turned your life around,’” Brian said.
For a tangible reminder of how far he’s come, Esposito need look no further than his wallet.
“Now I have a company credit card, and they trust me,” he said of RCA. “In the past, if it wasn’t nailed down, I took it.”
Now as a father, as a coach, as a counselor, Brian Esposito is giving — not taking.
“He’s willing to talk to anyone who has questions, including the children, about what is not the path to take, and learn from me,” Erin Esposito said. “I’m extremely proud of him.”
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him atjcarino@gannettnj.com.
