JAY — Spruce Mountain Middle School students were told Friday morning, Sept. 13, how one’s decisions can affect the rest of their lives and those they come in contact with.

Ethan Fisher spoke Friday morning, Sept. 13, to Spruce Mountain Middle School students about his struggles with drinking alcohol, how that impacted his life and others. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

Ethan Fisher said his presentations are mentally and physically exhausting because every time he shares his life story he has to relive it. “This is my job, my purpose,” he noted. “It’s not easy. I do this because I care.”

The five keys Fisher lives by daily are: accountability, goal setting, choices and decisions, perseverance, and faith.

Fisher told the students they are going to make a choice in the future that could impact the lives of people they haven’t even met. “Every one of us is faced with an infinite number of choices,” he noted. “It starts as soon as you walk out of this gym.”

If fears aren’t faced now, they will control the rest of your life, Fisher said. “You guys are facing more pain and trauma than I ever will,” he stated. “I wouldn’t want to be any one of you. You are dealing with pressure I couldn’t have dealt with.” Social media is out there 24 hours a day, he noted. “I applaud you,” he said. “Every one of you is stronger than I am. I don’t think I could do it.”

In 2003 Fisher was diagnosed with social anxiety. He said he intentionally failed college courses because he was too terrified to talk to people. “Look at what my job is now,” he stated. “I stand in front of the most judgmental audience – middle and high school students. My biggest fear is what I do for a living. When you face your fears good things happen.”

A Spruce Mountain Middle School student uses a simulator Friday morning, Sept. 13, to experience what driving while under the influence is like during a Choices Matter presentation at the school in Jay. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

Fisher said he played every sport in elementary school, had friends. Something changed when he went to middle school, he noted. He played basketball but hated middle and high school. He said he started worrying about what people thought of him, he was the second smallest kid in his class.

Fisher said he acted tough, at home no one talked about mental health and depression. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd, smoked weed and got into trouble.

In high school Fisher began drinking weekends. He said he didn’t know he was developing a habit, becoming alcoholic. “The drinking would hide my pain,” he said. He began drinking more, friends had no idea he was drinking every day, he stated.

Fisher stopped drinking when he went to college on a basketball scholarship. As a star player, he was instantly popular, went out on Friday nights, had easy access to alcohol and started drinking again. He said he got by the first semester, but lost his scholarship the second semester. He went home, got dried out and received a second basketball scholarship.

The pattern repeated itself over several years. After one party he woke up in a hospital bed, the nurse asked him if he knew what he had done. She told him while driving drunk he collided with another car and killed the driver.

When Fisher said this and showed a slide of the crash, there wasn’t a sound to be heard in the gym.

The driver was three miles from his house, Fisher said. He never again saw his wife of 37 years, his daughter and grandbabies because of choices he made, Fisher stated. He was on the wrong side of the road, the crash propelled his car 100 yards down the road, he noted. “I had a blood alcohol content of 2.69, don’t remember anything,” he said. “This can happen to any one of you.”

Grayson Hodgkins, sixth grade student at right watches while through use of a simulator, 6th grader Eli Ayer tries to walk as though under the influence Sept. 13 during a Choices Matter presentation at Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

Fisher was given 15 years in prison for vehicular homicide, said he didn’t serve enough time for his actions. While in prison he chose faith, decided he was going to change and get his college degree. He played college basketball, was the second oldest player in the country. “I was still on inmate status, was still in the prison system, it had never been done before,” he said. The first year he couldn’t travel for away games, he noted.

One of his college teams would go on to be champions twice, once while Fisher was a player and once as a coach. “My number one priority wasn’t hoops, it was to get my degree,” he said. He graduated with a 3.75 grade point average.

“When you get some success you get greedy,” Fisher stated. He obtained a second degree with a 4.0 GPA, a third with a 3.8. He received the President’s Award at Johnson and Wales University. Fisher was the best student on campus “because I had the desire to be the best, wouldn’t let anyone change me,” he added.

After Fisher’s talk students were able to use simulators to see what happens when driving drunk and how one’s mobility is affected after drinking.

Fisher’s Choices Matter presentation was made possible through the Alliance of Highway Safety and Maine’s Bureau of Highway Safety/Department of Public Safety.

Path of destruction, recovery

A timeline of Fisher’s struggle with alcohol.

1996-97 – Fisher began drinking as a junior at Poudre High School, Fort Collins, Colorado; his first sip was Jack Daniel’s whiskey after a loss to crosstown rival Fort Collins.

1997-98 – Served as captain of basketball team, averaged 14 points and 7.5 assists and named Poudre’s “most athletic” student in yearbook.

1998-99 – Attended Lamar Community College, started almost every basketball game and averaged nearly 18 points in the second half of the season. Poor second-semester grades.

1999 – Transferred to Eastern Wyoming to join former high school teammates; quit going to classes after three weeks and was kicked off the team.

1999-2000 – Moved back to Fort Collins, attended Front Range Community College for school only. Introduced to cocaine and ecstasy.

2000 – Transferred to Butte College in California; just like the previous year, he quit school and the basketball team and moved back to Colorado. Heavy drug and alcohol user.

2001 – Had an opportunity to transfer and play basketball at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota under coach Mike Dunlap, but failed a required summer anthropology class at Front Range College. Metro State went on to win the 2002 Division II national championship.

2002-03– Transferred to UNC [University of North Carolina] for school and basketball. Produced 1.8 grade-point average first semester and 0.4 in the second.

2003 – Fisher was ineligible to play at UNC but continued to take classes; committed vehicular homicide in November, out on bond for eight months.

2004 – In June, Fisher began a 10-year sentence in Larimer County, ultimately serving in Denver, Buena Vista, Cañon City and Rifle.

2007 – Released on good behavior in March to a halfway house in Fort Collins under intensive supervised parole.

2007-08 – Attended Front Range Community College and worked for father in Fort Collins.

2008-09 – Transferred to Johnson & Wales University and played basketball, averaged 14.4 points per game in 13-of-33 games.

2009-10 – As a senior at JWU, Fisher averaged 12.0 points in 16-of-31 games.

2010 – Graduated from JWU with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship, 4.0 GPA.

2010 – Became assistant basketball coach at JWU.

2011 – Graduated from JWU with a bachelor’s degree in business. 3.8 GPA

2012 – Founded nonprofit Life CONsequences and has delivered about 75 speeches nationally.

2014 – Fisher is released from parole in April.