Broncos teammates go to help
Kruger, Wilkie among group now in Humboldt doing what they can for team
As soon as he heard the horrifying news out of Humboldt, Darren Kruger called his lifelong friend Bob Wilkie.
“‘We’ve got to go,’” Kruger remembers saying. “’We’ve got to go and help in any way we can.’”
Three days later they drove past the site where a semi-trailer hit the Broncos’ bus, resulting in 15 deaths and 14 others injured, some still fighting for their lives in hospitals around Saskatchewan Monday night.
They went to help, and that meant driving the same fateful route the bus took on the way to Nipawin Friday for a junior A hockey playoff game. After talking with families and survivors the past two days, Kruger and Wilkie were headed to talk to some of the first responders in Nipawin.
“We’re going to share stories back and forth a little bit,” said Kruger, who now scouts for the Calgary Flames after a long tenure coaching and scouting with the Medicine Hat Tigers. “This is my first time really addressing people — it’s unbelievable what they’re able to do. You’re an hour from here, an hour from that centre and their ability to get there in a quick hurry, trying to digest everything to me is unfathomable. “Kudos to those people.” Kruger lost his brother Scott in 1986 when the Swift Current Broncos’ bus crashed in brutal winter conditions, killing four. Wilkie was one of the survivors. He’s now a mental skills coach for — among other groups — the Tigers.
If anybody has the toolbox to help out the players and their families in Humboldt this week, it’s him.
“It’s not an experience that you would ever hope that you would have to use, but having that experience made us want to get here as fast as we could to try and shed some light, create some understanding of what’s ahead of them and how they’re going to be able to pull through this,” said Wilkie.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to do or the impact it would have, but it’s turned out to be such a wonderful experience to be able to hug those parents, and the kids, and try to let them know that they’re not alone, the sun will come out again.”
Support has poured in from around the world, be it financial — the GoFundMe page dedicated to the Broncos had raised more than $6.4 million as of Monday night — or otherwise. A vigil in Lethbridge Monday followed the one in Medicine Hat Sunday, the same night Humboldt held its own emotional event with broadcasting legends Ron McLean and Don Cherry and even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on hand representing Canadians. A charity game is being planned in Medicine Hat. Across North America sticks are being left on doorsteps in another display of unity.
Kruger, Wilkie and 1986 Broncos teammates Sheldon Kennedy and Peter Soberlak flew together from Calgary Saturday, then spent time in hospital and later attended the vigil in Humboldt. Kruger — who didn’t join the Swift Current roster until 1987 — admits he let the other three do most of the talking.
“This one hit home for me a little harder,” said Kruger. “You never know what to say when you first get here, when you’re talking to families... For me to be around those three guys and watching them interact with the families and players for me was unbelievable. I just did a lot of hugging and embracing with moms and dads and sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, anybody that was in there.”
That included the family of Tigers prospect Layne Matechuk, who was in a coma Sunday according to a report from the Regina Leader-Post. Other connections to Medicine Hat include crash survivor Graysen Cameron, brother of ex-Tiger Bretton, and Parker Tobin, memorialized by current Tiger James Hamblin as “a great teammate and an (even) better friend” upon the news of his death Monday.
Wilkie said everyone wants to try and help because everyone experiences tragic loss at some point in their lives.
“I think in one way or another we’re all survivors,” he said. “Losing a parent, losing a brother, losing somebody with our school, we’ve all had to overcome some sort of tragedy. That’s what connects everybody; when something happens we know that feeling of sorrow, that feeling of despair.
“When you’re going through all the stuff that we’ve got, from people we’ve met on our journeys, to see the outcries of support on social media... it’s awful that something bad has to happen to bring the strength of people together, but it sure is a beautiful thing when it happens.”
So the ex-teammates got together, to do their part.
“It’s all about support now, and the road to recovery’s going to be a long one,” said Kruger. “It took a long time (for me), it never really leaves you.
“You learn to deal with it and move forward with the support of family and friends and everybody around, there’s a larger connection now with everybody involved. It’s not just the hockey world, it’s the whole world in general.”