A proactive approach to mental health

Andrew Ladd is a World Juniors gold medallist and two-time Stanley Cup champion. He played 17 National Hockey League (NHL) seasons, wearing the ‘C’ as captain of the Atlanta Thrashers and Winnipeg Jets for five of those. He would be the first to tell you his career was great.

 

Until it wasn’t.

 

“I was always very good at putting my head down, grinding, working hard and figuring it out,” Andrew recalls. “And if things didn’t go well, I’d work harder.

 

“Then all of a sudden that wasn’t working for me anymore.”

 

Two major knee surgeries near the end of his career forced him to the minors and put a strain on his mental health. Even at home, Andrew says he either felt numb or on edge. His wife, Brandy, finally suggested he needed to speak to someone.

 

“I could just see him in his head constantly and I worried for him a lot,” Brandy says. “I’m a fixer and I just wanted to fix it for him, but I didn’t know how. All I could do was encourage him to talk to a professional and then I needed to learn how to support him the right way.”

 

With that encouragement, Andrew took a deep-dive into mental wellness and quickly realized he had never been taught that as part of the game. He also started to understand most support for mental health is reactive and is rarely discussed before there is a need.

 

So as his on-ice career came to a close, he and Brandy decided to focus the philanthropy of the Ladd Foundation on proactive mental wellness for young hockey players. Thus, the dream of 1616 was born – a program for minor hockey teams to build connections, confidence, character and competence.

We want this to be a resource to help guide players, coaches and parents through the youth hockey journey and to help leverage the power of sport for what we know it can be. — Andrew Ladd

Entering its third full season, 1616 is a free, 10-week virtual experience designed for U13 teams. The curriculum for the mental and social wellbeing portion of the program was led by Dr. Luc Martin of the Performance Lab for the Advancement of Youth in Sport (PLAYS) Research Group at Queen’s University. Hockey Hall of Fame member Adam Oates provides the on-ice drills. Professional athletes from the NHL, Professional Women’s Hockey League and para-sport world share personal stories and challenges to engage in the weekly videos, including Connor McDavid, Natalie Spooner, Deryk Engelland, Jay Beagle and Blayre Turnbull.

 

The program – named in part for the jersey number Ladd wore at every stop of his NHL career – launched in 2021 with 500 participants in Canada and the United States. It grew to 88 teams for the 2022-23 season, and more than 200 teams last year.

 

“We want this to be the blueprint for all sports,” Andrew says, explaining his vision for the future of 1616. “We think hockey has the opportunity to really be a leader in this space … and build these programs to follow [the players] all the way up to U18.”

 

When Andrew says players, he means everyone associated with the player – coaches and families as well. There are elements in 1616 for everyone involved in the game, which Brandy says she has been learning from – and implementing in her own parenting – through the development of the program. Though this year, the Ladds will gain a different perspective of their work, participating in 1616 with their children’s teams.

“To go through it week by week with them and get to experience the impact it can have directly on our kids and their team, I’m looking forward to seeing it all,” Brandy says.

 

Andrew is also looking forward to the end-user experience. When he became a hockey parent, he thought his years of experience would equip him to guide and mentor his children through the game. But there was one thing he had forgotten about: the car ride home.

 

“We all have memories of those car rides home and now as a parent I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What do I say to my kid right now?’” Ladd says with a laugh, adding that another goal of 1616 is to equip and empower parents and coaches to understand the impact they can have on their players in those quiet moments.

 

There are conversation-starters for parents and reflective questions for coaches throughout each week of the program. Andrew says it’s important to keep everyone engaged because research shows if the messaging is not being reinforced by parents and coaches, the players don’t follow through.

 

Through the first two seasons, nearly 300 teams have enjoyed the 1616 experience, which has been updated this year to have a second stream for teams to participate in back-to-back years with new content.

 

“Parents are feeling more equipped to talk to their kids, coaches are seeing confidence, competence and character growth within a season; basically, everything we want to see happen within the program is happening, which is really exciting,” Ladd says. “My expectations are high in terms of what we can create here and the experience we can create for hockey families across Canada.

 

“It’s a fun challenge.”

 

Registration for the 2024-25 season is open now. The new season begins Oct. 13. Visit 1616.org to learn more.

 

By Lee Boyadjian, October 10, 2024