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MindCheck’s hockey hero

Hockey player Myles Mattila has been concerning himself with more than just the game these days
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Myles Mattila

Hockey player Myles Mattila has been concerning himself with more than just the game these days and the young athlete’s tireless efforts both on and off the ice have not gone unnoticed.

In March, this former member of the Tier 3 Quesnel Thunder received HockeyNow’s Minor Hockey Player of the Year award.

Myles moved away from Quesnel to further his hockey career, advancing to the next highest level he could play, and was nominated for the award in the middle of his first season with the Tier 1 Cougars in Prince George.

“It felt pretty great because I am the only kid from the north that got picked,” Myles said.

“Everybody else is kind of from Kamloops and North Vancouver so I was really honoured to get picked from the north.”

This minor hockey player of the year award program does not only recognize ability and performance in hockey, but also the players participation in the school and community.

Myles began promoting for Mindcheck, a website organized to help people struggling with mental issues get help, in Sept 2013.

His active involvement in Mindcheck is largely due to an incident that occurred with a fellow hockey player.

It was a couple of years ago that a teammate of Myles’ was having problems.

He was unable to help and believes that if he had known about Mindcheck before he could have done more to help this teammate.

Since starting his involvement with Mindcheck, Myles has met with an advisor from the program to discuss different steps that Myles can take to help the community even further.

Right now he gives presentations and puts poster up around school.

So far Myles seems to be getting great feedback from school faculty and his peers.

When asked why he believes he received the hockey player of the year award Myles said, “helping out in the community and giving back, I believe that helped out a lot.”

At only 15, Myles doesn’t appear to be slowing in his community involvement or in hockey.

The young athlete has set his goal high, continuing in hockey with the hopes of working his way up to the highest level he could play.

“I believe it will be WHL,” Myles said. “There was a draft day and I actually was chosen by the Vancouver Giants.”

During the summer, Myles will be attending a training camp for rookies and afterwards he may get invited to the main camp.

For now Myles has set his sights in Prince George. For the upcoming season he will be moving from bantam to midget and hopes to make the Cariboo Cougars.