Zach Warden

How are you?

Oh, the fantasy team's taking a hit, man.

The amount of injuries I have this year, it's worse than the Blue Jays pitching stuff.

Well, listen, if the Jays can mix in some wins, then I'd be okay with it.

But if they keep playing like this, then I'd rather I'm healthy and win the league.

I have a big ego.

Yeah, so I played in the OHL in Windsor and Sault Ste.

Marie, played professionally in the U.S.

and in Europe, and in 2016 came out as the first openly gay men's professional hockey player.

Did it for me, hoped I'd help a few people, but the first day alone, 10,000 messages, people all over the world, international media.

Before I knew it, I was getting calls to speak, schools, events, corporations, sports teams, and by 2019, I was running hockey businesses in Sudbury, Ontario, and then I shut them down, moved to Toronto, and I've been traveling the world since.

And I started the Shift Makers program in 2023, where I went to 100 hockey teams in 100 days across Canada.

And this year was year three.

And it expanded to 250 stops in 200 days, coast to coast.

Regardless of the sport, we have to conform, right?

Players dress same, talk same, walk same, they adhere to norms and it's a part of who they are, but it's not fully who they are.

So first I'm trying to rally them to create shifts and big or small, they have a ripple effect and they don't know the true impact they'll have.

When I was running hockey businesses, I was closeted in the sports world still out of my private life, but I came to find out all my athletes knew and they started to hold each other accountable for their language.

And one OHL player one day heard a younger guy say, that's so gay.

And he said, give me 50 pushups.