Special guest-speaker for Mental Health Classic off-ice sessions

The inaugural Mental Health Classic 3v3 hockey tournament is all set to go for Friday.

Players on the ice will be happy to lace up the skates in mid-August, but it's what's taking place off the ice that really matters this weekend.

DJay McGrath spearheaded the tournament and has been the main voice promoting it, and he has to be looking forward to getting things started with his fellow on-ice coaches.

One of them is Kindersley's own Amber Rennie, who talked about what the players will be up too.

"I thought it was a great idea for the kids to have some fun, and also get to talk to some different people who are experienced in mental health."

Rennie will share her experiences playing college hockey for Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, and interestingly enough is bringing along a friend from the college days who is more than cut out for an appearance at something called the Mental Health Classic.

"(Jessica Gazzolla) is a psychologist, getting her PHD, and is going to be a guest speaker talking to the girls about the different things she went through. She moved away from home at a young age, did the whole having to live with billets, and then moving to university quite far from family. She has a lot of great experiences that all these kids will end up going through if they play high-level-hockey."

As a former hockey player Rennie is happy to see the mental side of things being discussed at a young age. Talking about things now and learning strategies for down the road can only help any inevitable struggles, rather than keeping to themselves and creating scary feelings.

"Just giving them the opportunity to learn about it, talk about it, have some skills and resources, coping mechanisms to move forward if it does happen."

The overall conversation of mental health is still relatively new to sports like hockey. Rennie says during her time at school they were only beginning to delve into the deep topic, and now her special guest Gazzola is taking it to the next level.

"She actually started a program for student athletes at my school, that they can come and talk to different counsellors through the athletic department. At my age this was just kind of starting at the university, so it's great to see it becoming more of a conversation around the sport of hockey altogether."

Hopefully this weekend's tournament is the start of a great tradition, and more conversations on the topic of mental health.