An Ohio addiction recovery speaker, from an Ohio story

An Ohio recovery story, start to finish

After Jackson-Milton High School, Phil served in the US Army from 1987 to 1993. After he got out, the drinking got out of hand. For twenty years he held a job and drank 24 to 30 beers a night. He picked up three DUIs: a couple of days in jail, then longer, then a couple of months, his last time behind bars. On New Year's Eve 2002 he was shot and nearly killed.

In 2009 a doctor told him his body was like a 70-year-old man's. His nine-year-old son cried, and Phil pulled into a gym he had passed every day on his way to the liquor store and said "I need help." He quit drinking cold turkey, found AA and a sponsor about a year later, and lost about 140 pounds that first year.

In 2015 he won the Black Sword, the championship trophy of the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural bodybuilding show. He took three first places at the Reign of Fire in Akron, Ohio. Today he runs Body by Phil in Austintown, Ohio, and has been matched on Masters boxing cards in Girard, Youngstown and Campbell, Ohio.

Ohio overdose deaths by county, 2023

The Ohio Department of Health counts unintentional drug overdose deaths by county of residence. For the seven Ohio counties where Phil has a city page:

Source: Ohio Department of Health, 2023 Ohio Unintentional Drug Overdose Report, Table 8 (age-adjusted rates).

The two Ohio counties around Phil's home, Mahoning and Trumbull, have the highest rates of the seven.

What an Ohio recovery audience hears

When California Palms in Austintown, Ohio, billed his 2019 evening, its flyer promised his story "of battling obesity and alcoholism to what motivated his transformation and commitment to helping others." Talks run up to an hour. The themes are the ones on his podcast: the functional alcoholic who never lost his job, the doctor's office, "I need help," quitting cold turkey, the twelve steps, and the people he now trains, from a blind man another Ohio gym turned away to a woman who started at 71.

His line on addiction: "To me, addiction is not having the impulse control to stop doing something that's causing us pain or suffering or causing some sort of loss or problem in our life."

Ohio press coverage

Ohio newsrooms have covered Phil for years: the Tribune Chronicle in Warren profiled him and The Black Sword in 2025; The Vindicator in Youngstown and 21 News (WFMJ) reported on Tom Wagner, the blind client he trains; Business Journal Daily listed him in the cast of a Youngstown boxing film. Read the Ohio press.

An Ohio champion, on the stage and in the ring

The Black Sword is named for an Ohio trophy: the championship of the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural, which Phil won in 2015. At the Reign of Fire in Akron he won Masters Over 50, Transformation and the Overall Poser award. In the ring he won the Masters main event at Jack Loew's Thanksgiving Feast card in Girard, Ohio, in November 2021.