Brock McGillis: The Locker Room Should Be Disneyland, Vulnerable is Brave & Why Words Matter

⚠️ This episode deals with serious topics including mental health, self-harm, and abuse. If you or someone you know needs support, contact Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) or the Suicide Crisis Helpline (988).Brock McGillis became the first openly gay player to have played professional hockey, but the path to that moment nearly cost him everything. Depression. Daily drinking. Self-harm. A sport culture that told him, in a thousand small ways every day, that he couldn't be himself.Today Brock runs the Shift Makers tour, visiting over 250 hockey teams across Canada in a single season. What he finds in those rooms is alarming: over a thousand players disclosing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, thousands more sharing mental health struggles, and more than 50 who had never told anyone they'd been sexually assaulted — until they told him. In this conversation, Brock talks about why sport culture continues to silence young people, what true inclusion actually looks like versus what organizations claim it looks like, and why the answer isn't more analysis — it's action. He also shares the story of Brendan Burke, whose friendship and tragic death became the catalyst for everything Brock does today. This is one of the most important conversations Better Sports Parents has had. Better Sports Parents is helping parents positively impact the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week Chapters00:00 Opening01:36 Introduction & Content Warning03:17 The Shift Makers Tour: 250 Teams in 200 Days04:11 How Locker Room Culture Programs Kids to Conform08:13 How Do We Go From Thinking the Right Things to Actually Doing Them?09:15 The Push-Up Story: How Shift Makers Was Born10:06 Challenging Bravery: "Tell Me Something You Wouldn't Tell a Teammate"12:10 "The Locker Room Should Be Disneyland"15:04 Why Kids Won't Talk to Parents and What Brock Does Differently19:17 The Real Reason Kids Don't Come Forward22:14 Why Brock Becomes the First Person They Ever Tell23:11 Parents Need to Humanize Themselves Too30:38 What to Do When Your Teenager Won't Talk to You34:19 Why "I Didn't Mean It Like That" Is Not Good Enough35:08 How the Culture Became Brock's Identity and His Prison38:11 Who or What Finally Made Him Be Himself43:27 Brendan Burke: The Friend Who Changed Everything43:58 What True Inclusion Actually Looks Like in Sport46:36 Why "We're a Family" Is Often Hollow51:26 Stop Talking. Start Doing.54:21 The Vicious Cycle: Coaches Doing What Was Done to Them58:51 Talk to Them as People, Not as Hockey Robots1:00:47 Resources for Self-Harm and Mental Health Support1:04:14 The Biggest Issue in Youth Sport Today: Affordability1:07:21 Why Sport Can Still Be GreatResourcesBrock McGillis' advocacy and speaking platformKids Help Phone⁠Jumpstart