COACH REMEMBERS ‘AMAZING’ ADAM HEROLD
Youngest player killed in Humboldt crash was selfless leader with Pat Canadiens
Rare is the occasion when the preamble to an interview is so revealing it helps tell the story.
Adam Herold, however, was a rare person — an extraordinary young man who left such a positive impression on the Regina Pat Canadians and their head coach, Darrin McKechnie.
“I will take whatever time is needed to tell the world how amazing this young man was,” McKechnie said via email on Monday morning, in response to my interview request. “Whatever you need.”
The latter three words summarize Herold’s attitude toward his coaches and teammates. Herold, one of 15 people who died in the Humboldt Broncos’ bus crash on Friday, invariably put the interests of others before his own.
“This is getting much easier to say,” McKechnie said during the fourth interview he conducted on Monday. “I’m not crying anymore when I say it ...
“Everybody would want their sons to turn out like him and everybody would want their daughters to bring guys home like him.”
McKechnie was introduced to Herold as the 2015-16 season loomed. A highly touted defenceman from Montmartre, Herold made such a first impression on the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League’s Pat Canadians that they contemplated keeping him as a 14-year-old.
However, the decision was made for Herold to play for the bantam AA Prairie Storm, a team he captained in 2015-16.
Herold again wore the “C” this past season, his second with the Pat Canadians.
“With no disrespect to his teammates, because we had so many great leaders, there really was only one choice for captain this year, and that was Adam,” McKechnie said. “It was a unanimous choice among all the coaches.”
And the players rallied around and revered him.
“Adam was the most selfless guy on the team,” forward Matt Culling said. “That’s why he was our captain. He always put the team first, no matter what. He was so down to earth and was the most kind-hearted kid I knew.”
Examples to that effect could fill the space allotted for several columns.
“It didn’t matter if you won or you lost. He would be loading the bus,” McKechnie said. “There’s lots of extra stuff you take on the bus and he’d keep on making trips.
“Nowadays, these kids get a little bit carried away with, ‘OK, I’ve got my bag on the bus, and I’ve got my sticks,’ and then they turn to their phone because something ’s more important on there. Adam just wasn’t that type.”
Even when he could easily have allowed others to do the grunt work that is normally performed by rookies.
“I remember him getting a knee injury one night,” McKechnie said. “He was limping and I was surprised that he stayed in the game. We were going to sit him down but, no, he wanted to continue playing. So he did, and then we ended up losing that game.
“Everybody’s down, but he was going back and forth, to and from the bus. Our equipment manager said, ‘Can you stop? Other guys can do this.’ He would always carry the stuff.”
That includes a championship trophy, which the Pat Canadians received Jan. 1 after winning the prestigious Mac’s midget tournament in Calgary.
“There’s a picture of him at his Mom and Dad’s with his Mac’s toque on after we won the championship,” McKechnie said. “He’s got a big smile on his face. He’s got the gold medal around his neck. He’s got his own hockey bag over his back and a jersey hung over the other side. In the other hand, it’s a set of water bottles.
“If he had an extra hand, he wasn’t leaving it for somebody else.”
Herold stayed in Regina while playing for the Pat Canadiens, but it was the same way back home in Montmartre, where he tirelessly helped out on the family farm and other places away from the rink.
“Adam was the type of kid who, before his first-period class, would go to Level 10 Fitness and work out sometimes before school started,” McKechnie said. “Then he would go to school and come to practice.
“Then he would be the type of guy who would be the hardest worker at practice. It would be work, work, work, and he would listen and pay attention. Then after practice, he would be the guy cleaning up.”
Even then, he wasn’t necessarily finished with hockey for the day.
“Sometimes he would say to me, ‘Hey, ’Kech, don’t lock up. I’m going to go over to Peak (Performance Hockey),’” McKechnie continued. “He would shoot pucks over there for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half. He’d talk to Todd Liskowich and Dale Derkatch about hockey. Then he would go home and get his homework done.
“Adam would do anything to be a better player. He wanted to be a player, so he would do all those things. So at the end of the day, instead of going and sitting in the stands in P.A., he went to Humboldt to play.”
And that is how he ended up on the bus on a fateful Friday.
After the Pat Canadians were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, Herold had the option of joining the Broncos or the Prince Albert Raiders for the remainder of the season. The latter team had selected him in the second round (35th overall) of the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft.
Herold eventually joined the Broncos, for whom he had played in one SJHL regular-season game.
“That was his choice, because he knew that it was going to make him a better player, and he would do anything to make himself a better player,” McKechnie said.
“That was just part of it. That’s why he was there.”
He was so impressive that he played in eight post-season games while helping the Broncos advance to a semifinal series against the Nipawin Hawks.
The Broncos were en route to Nipawin for a game on Friday when their bus collided with a semi-trailer truck near Tisdale. Herold, who would have turned 17 on Thursday, was the youngest player on the team.
However, Herold carried himself with a maturity that belied his years. That explains why he was presented in early March with the midget AAA league’s Chuck Herriott Award, which recognizes sportsmanship, dedication and commitment to the game.
“Somehow, some way, there will be an Adam Herold Award for our league, or something like that,” McKechnie said. “We’re in the early stages, but somehow this is going to happen.
“There’s just too many people who know and care about him, so we’re going to try to make something happen — just for his memory, because he deserves that.”