At one point a hometown hero, even a worldwide star, but during all of these times, a drug addict. Chris Herren, a native of Fall River Massachusetts, is an inspirational speaker who is on a mission to talk to and help high school students who may struggle with drug abuse.

On Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 one of the most well-known life speakers in the USA came to Prep to speak to the student body. Chris Herren who was well known by many in the late 90s as a phenom on the basketball court has now taken upon a responsibility to tell his life story.

Herren started with about a 30-minute video setting the scene of his life from high school all the way up until now. He was a 5-star athlete in basketball coming out of high school. The point guard from a small city in Massachusetts, was one of the biggest names in the country, as a once-in-a-century talent. Everyone knew who he was, and frankly, adored him.

After high school ended, he enrolled at Boston College to play basketball. After one year, he then transferred to Fresno State where his drug problem took a leap for the worse. During his struggles, he had to come out to the press that he was a drug addict, hurting his stock for the NBA. Being one of the best players on earth, Herren got drafted in the second round because of concerns with his drug issue. The Denver Nuggets took a chance on him, and when he went to this city, all of his problems went away. It was every time he returned to his hometown when he would reunite with drugs. He then got traded to the Celtics where his problems kept escalating to the point where he couldn’t play and needed to go to treatment centers for long periods of time.

This issue of his hurt his family life, and created many more problems. He sent a message through the students’ heads of how to stay safe, and how to think things over, and to many, it worked.

Herren wanted to tell the Cathedral Prep students this story because he wants to help kids our age to save ourselves before something of that caliber happens. The message he needs to get out to the world is think before you make decisions. Ask yourself why, and if the answer is I don’t know, rethink for the better of your life.