‘ONE AMAZING MAN’
TEAM ANNOUNCER BIEBER REMEMBERED AT FIRST FUNERAL FOR VICTIMS OF BRONCOS BUS CRASH
HUMBOLDT, SASK. • In death it was Tyler Bieber’s heart, not his voice, that he was most remembered for.
The play-by-play announcer for the Humboldt Broncos was laid to rest Thursday, the first of the 16 victims of last Friday’s violent bus crash to be buried.
Hundreds of mourners — many dressed in the jersey of their favourite sports team, many with “BroncosStrong” bumper stickers on their vehicles or donned in ribbons of gold and green — quietly filed into the Elgar Petersen Arena, the prairie town’s arena and home of their beloved Broncos.
Bieber, who turned 29 in February — a Big Brothers Big Sister mentor who was set to start coaching at a football academy in Saskatoon — died Friday when the team’s bus and a transport trailer crashed at a rural highway intersection. On Wednesday, the collision claimed Dayna Brons, 24, the only woman on the bus and the team’s trainer.
Thursday’s service, closed to the media but described by those who attended as emotional and touching, was held on the ice where the Broncos play their homes games, and where Bieber did the play-by-play so well it surprised his older brother, Brandon. He lives in Alberta and had his first and only chance to hear Tyler call the game when he went home for Easter. “I was like, ‘Tyler, man, you’re awesome,” Brandon told cfl.ca. ‘You’re going to go somewhere, you know, whether it be hockey, the NHL or something.”
Bieber was in his first year of doing play-by-play for the team.
A display inside the arena’s lobby featured photos of Bieber, high school coaching playbooks and an homage to his favourite sports teams — most notably the NFL New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady.
When Patriots owner Robert Kraft learned Bieber was a fan, he sent flowers on behalf of the team to Thursday’s service, and a voicemail for Bieber’s mother expressing condolences, according to ESPN.
In an outpouring of support, sports jerseys were worn across the country Thursday, from Ascension Collegiate in Bay Roberts, N.L., to paramedics in Peel region, west of Toronto and elementary school girls in Victoria as part of Jersey Day, an effort inspired by a group of British Columbia hockey moms.
“My son was one amazing man,” Bieber’s mother, Marilyn Hay, said last week. “He would get up at 5:30 every morning and go to work, but his day didn’t stop there,” she said, remembering how Bieber was rarely at home, and always running from work to volunteer jobs.
On a Facebook post, Brandon wrote, “I don’t know what to do or say right now, but I know one thing is you will always be true in my heart, RIP my sweet brother, I miss you and love you dearly.”
Many of those quietly entering and exiting the arena for Thursday’s hour-long service were holding hands, or had their arms around others in support.
The team had earlier issued a statement asking reporters not to attend the service. “A grieving family has asked for absolutely no media coverage of the event,” it said. “This is an incredibly emotional and trying time for Broncos families.”
Bieber, well known in Humboldt’s sports community for both his on-air work with radio station Bolt FM and his volunteer work with numerous local teams, is survived by his mother, father, sister and two brothers.
Keegan Adair, 14, was one of the honorary pallbearers and wore his Humboldt high school football team jersey over his suit.
He said the loss of “Coach Bieber” will hurt him and his teammates but that they’re focusing on happier memories, like Bieber’s pep talks before games, and how Bieber told Adair how proud he was of how hard he played.
“It’s difficult to say the least,” Adair said. “Everyone’s torn by the whole ordeal. We need to push on and keep going with our every day lives, but hold on to a lot of the dear things.”
Lyndon Friesen, president of Bolt FM’s parent company Golden West Radio, travelled from Manitoba to attend the funeral with other employees. Friesen called Bieber’s death tragic and said it had a huge impact on those who work there.
“He was a critical piece to the station,” Friesen said in an interview.
Maureen Johnson, who knows Bieber’s mother and has a child Bieber’s age, wore a jersey to the service. She said she attended the funeral to show support not only for Bieber’s family, but “to show strong support for the kids in the hospital.”
In all, 29 people were onboard when the Broncos bus collided with the semi-trailer under clear skies. Eleven remain in hospital.
A memorial is scheduled for head coach Darcy Haugan at the same Humboldt arena on Saturday.
The grieving community will be challenged in days ahead, Dalhousie University professor of psychiatry Dr. Stan Kutcher said in an interview with the Post.
“In one sense living in Canada we are exceedingly fortunate to live in a society where tragic events are relatively few and far between,” he said. “If we lived in Syria or the Democratic Republic of Congo we would be faced with these on a much more persistent basis, and thank God that we’re not living in those places and we’re fortunate enough to live in this country and have this incredible quality of life.”
But as unforeseen as they are, as horrible and traumatic, tragic events are part of the human condition, he said. “They cause tremen- dous soul searching. They cause huge psychological distress,” Kutcher said.
“The only way we get through that is with time and through the support of people who love us and we love, and our friends and neighbours and families.”
“There is no shortcut. There’s no magic bullet, there’s no pill or psychotherapy,” Kutcher said. “This is raw human existence, and this is what happens sometimes in our lives.”