Broncos captain’s jersey makes long voyage home
British ball hockey player knew he had to reconnect keepsake with Schatz family
Josh Nertney knew he had to get Logan Schatz’s jersey back home.
The red-and-white No. 20 Team Canada sweater was sitting back in Nertney’s apartment in England when he learned of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
What has resulted since then is the start of a jersey journey of nearly 6,300 kilometres to honour Schatz, the Broncos team captain who was among those killed in the crash on April 6.
Nertney, a junior ball hockey player for Great Britain’s national team, had crossed paths — and swapped jerseys — with Schatz at the 2016 world junior under-20 ball hockey championship in Sheffield, England.
Through correspondence with Schatz’s loved ones back in Saskatchewan, Nertney was able to arrange the return of Logan’s Team Canada jersey.
“Truthfully, I didn’t do this to get all the publicity,” Nertney, 20, said when contacted this week. “I’ve done it out of respect and goodness of my heart.”
On the day following the crash, Nertney met with his Great Britain ball hockey team and learned what happened. He found out Schatz was among the people killed, and quickly shared his feelings on Twitter:
“Been reading about the awful news which has happened in Canada about a devastating bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos. I have just found out that I played against one of the lads in the world ball hockey championships also to have swapped shirts with him.”
Nertney then posted a photo of the jersey on Twitter, directing his tweet to the Broncos’ Twitter account. The tweet — in which he asked “everyone in the hockey community” to share and said he “would love to get (the jersey) back to Logan’s family” — worked its magic. Nertney was able to get in contact with Logan’s girlfriend Amy and Logan’s sister Meagan.
He said he didn’t get a chance for much one-on-one time with Schatz during the world junior ball championship but remembers speaking to him and other members of the Canadian team a few times during that tournament.
“From when I played against him, he was an outstanding player,” he said.
When contacted Thursday, Logan’s mother Bonnie said the Team Canada jersey had not yet arrived but she understood it was being shipped to Allan, Sask.
“We knew it was on its way. Yeah, it was pretty incredible,” she said.
“(Nertney) felt like he wanted to send it. It was something he needed to do.
“We’ve seen so many things, people that have been reaching out, people that I don’t even know who (Logan) taught or coached, the U-15s, people who have expressed that they met him.”
The five-foot-nine, 170-pound Schatz — an outgoing team leader who played with a big heart — led the Broncos in scoring with 22 goals and 63 assists in 57 regular season games. That included four power-play goals, three shorthanded markers and two gamewinning tallies. He added three goals and 10 assists in nine games during the playoffs.
Schatz spent four seasons with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Broncos, although he was sidelined for half of the 201617 season due to injury. He played 209 games in the SJHL, compiling 50 goals and 157 assists.
Bonnie Schatz said she remembers when Logan returned from the world ball hockey championship in the summer of 2016.
“When he came back without his jersey, I was a little upset,” she said with a bit of a laugh, “because it was the jersey.
“I told him, ‘ Why would you give your jersey away?’ ”