Humboldt survivor unable to attend Hockey Hounds tourney

The Humboldt Broncos logo is front and centre on the poster but that’s as far as the Hockey Hounds Major Bantam Hockey Tournament’s connection with the team will be when the event starts today at various rinks in Medicine Hat.

Hounds president George Hamel said Wednesday that Broncos bus crash survivor Layne Matechuk won’t attend the 16-team tournament as was hoped after the organizing committee reached out to him in hopes of dropping the first puck after the opening ceremonies tonight.

Hamel said Matechuk — who spent months in a coma after the April disaster — isn’t feeling well enough to travel. Matechuk was a bantam draft pick of the Medicine Hat Tigers and now faces tremendous health challenges.

The hometown South East Athletic Club Tigers begin their quest for a title against one of the tournament favourites, the Martensville Marauders, at 8:30 p.m. at the Kinplex. While the Hounds are first place in their Alberta bantam AAA league division with a 7-4-2 record, Martensville is 9-0 in Saskatchewan league play.

Defending champion St. George’s Academy opens against Prince Albert at 5 p.m. at Hockey Hounds. Round robin games go on through Friday with playoffs starting Saturday afternoon. The final is slated for 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

It’s the time of year when baseball players in Medicine Hat head indoors to work on their skills, which generally means an hour or two a week.

So when Austin Schibler realized he could hit in a batting cage practically every day in junior high, he was more than a bit excited.

“Winters aren’t friendly in Alberta, so the batting cage we had put in really helped us get better,” said Schibler, now in his senior year at Columbia College in Missouri. “No other junior high school is ever going to have a cage in their gym so that people can get better all times of the year.”

Schibler looks back fondly on his middle school days, where he went from a run-of-the-mill hockey player to someone with scholarship potential on the diamond.

It took a lot of hard work but he’s had great experiences with baseball, first at Monsignor McCoy High School, then the Prairie Baseball Academy in Lethbridge and now Columbia.

Topping the charts is the two Canadian college championships he won with PBA.

“Winning two national championships with the Prairie Baseball Academy, that was definitely the highlight,” said Schibler, an infielder who hit over .400 in his last season with PBA. “Then coming here, playing on a great team is a different experience down in the States.

“Different people, people from all over the world you get to come and play around and be