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United by Purpose. Guided by Care.

Meet the team dedicated to bringing mental health literacy to sport on and off the field.

Connected Coaches

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Connected Parents & Caregivers

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Our Team

Chris Romanchuk

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Chris Romanchuk, founder of ConnectSport, set out to bridge the gap between a love of hockey and the mental health impact that can accompany a high pressure sport. Chris was brought up playing minor hockey in Marwayne and Dewberry, AB. He spent his elite years in Lloydminster, as well as with the AJHL and BCHL. Chris left the hockey world for a while to pursue his Journeyman Welder. In July 2021, Chris moved to Calgary to coach hockey, and that summer lost his best friend to suicide. In that he realized the struggle that so many have maintaining good mental health and decided he needed to make a difference, hence the beginning of Connect Sport. Chris is a dedicated coach and hockey development instructor in Calgary for the North Stars, and Hockey Alberta, advocating for mentorship both on and off the ice. Chris believes that sport and the community of sport can be powerful in supporting the mental health of athletes, coaches, parents, and supporters on all levels.

Chris Romanchuk

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What People Think About Us

Testimonials from coaches, organizations and parents about Connect Sport and what we do.

Kent

Parent, LLoydminster

Real life feel to mental health.

This program acts as a short but important reminder of key indicators of what a mental health situation looks like. This program brought a real life feel to mental health and the stigmas around it. It made you look at the questions from another perspective. We all feel or deal with mental health in some way in our lives, and this program reminds us of our role as supporter and patient of mental health and how we can get help before it negatively affects our lives or someone else’s around us.

Marcus

Coach, Calgary Northstars

Connect Sport was an enlightening experience.

This platform offered valuable tools that better equipped my staff to better support the mental health challenges of our players.

Rohit Sharma

Coach

Arming our coaching staffs with better tools to support mental health literacy has been a great investment into their development to become better coaches far more valuable than any X’s and O’s training would have. We will continue to work directly with Connect Sport as more support is needed in this area in sport.

Jesse hale

Calgary Northstars GM

Part of a much needed shift.

Connect Sport has been a huge part of a much needed shift in the mental health support of our athletes during the 2022/23 season. We currently host 12 minor hockey programs within CNHA with 220 players and 50 coaches. Following our Connect Sport Coaches on boarding I received calls from a large number of our coaching staffs thanking us for this resource. I have also had a member for each of our staff outline at least one instance where Connect Sport training has helped with better Connect and support an athlete on their team this season.