Our story

Chris, founder of Connect Sport lost his best friend Chad when he died by suicide at 29 years young.  Chad was a player of many sports, a coach, a mentor, and a trainer.  He was a role model to many young athletes and young people in his life.  In dealing with this tragic loss, Chris began to reflect on his own mental health and the mental health of those in his life.  Eight days after losing Chad, Chris knew he had the opportunity to do something – to connect his and Chad’s love of sport to helping young athletes and those that support them to care for their own mental health, and cope with life’s struggles.  As a coach himself, he wanted to help coaches learn to support their athletes and reach out for help if they needed.  “I need to make a difference to honor my boy”, so he picked up the phone and Connect Sport was born.

He started with family friend Coralee Hohne; social worker, school counsellor, Mom of athletes.  He called Ryan Giles, hockey dad in Calgary and the momentum began.  Through these connections conversations began with Stephen Smith CEO of Strike Group Inc, who had recently lost a dear friend and sports enthusiast to suicide. As well as Joanne Weninger, COO of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation who connected us with Andrew Baxter of Mentalhealthliteracy.org.

In March 2022, Connect Sport began developing a Coach and Parent program to educate on mental health literacy and piloted with Lloydminster Minor Hockey and the Calgary Northstars to introduce the program.  Between August 2022 and January 2023, 371 coaches and bench staff and 973 parents completed the programs.  Since beginning with hockey, we have now included gymnastics and other sports.  Seeing the feedback and data we realized that launching an online training course, as well as providing in person and online training could reach a greater population.

Connect Sport is a registered federal charity dedicated to developing the connection between mental health and athletics. The Connect Sport programs are designed to give coaches, parents, and others the knowledge and skills to educate and support athletes while encouraging the care of their own mental health and behavior.  We aim to help coaches and parents identify mental health concerns and use the appropriate language when speaking to youth, model good mental health and language, and link athletes, coaches and parents to pathways of care.  We have partnered with Mentalhealthliteracy.org, Alberta Health Services, and the Alberta Children’s Hospital to write the programs and collect data to further improve the training.

As a registered charity, Connect Sport aims to give back to communities and athletes through fundraising efforts, athlete development and further education.