“You don’t imagine something like this will happen”

ETSB Principal turned Humboldt Broncos VP reflects on the tragedy

When Randy Maclean left the Eastern Townships School Board in the fall of 2013, it was to take a job as Deputy Director of Education at the Horizon School Division in Humboldt Saskatchewan, a position he still holds today. Since that time, the former principal of both Massey-vanier and Alexander Galt high schools has also become the vice-president of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

Speaking with The Record on Thursday afternoon, Maclean said that he has been through a broad spectrum of emotions since the crash last Friday evening that has left 16 staff and team members dead.

“You don’t imagine something like this will happen,” the vice-president said. “Accidents happen, but this straight out of a Hollywood script, and not a good one.”

Maclean said that he was at the gym when the first call came in to say that there had been an accident. As more information came to him through other calls, he traced a line from disbelief to despair to anger.

“You try to wrap your mind around what happened,” he said. “On Friday we lost 15 members of our staff all in one swipe.”

With only a name to go from, it can be hard to get a clear picture of what kind of a community Humboldt is. Maclean explained that the city has a population of just over 6,000, making it similar in size to Eastern Townships towns like Bromont or Windsor.

“The Humboldt Broncos are a Junior Hockey team in a community of 6,000,” he said. “We have 20 plus players who live in people’s homes. Local people take these young adults in; we call them billet moms and billet dads. They are part of the fabric.”

Maclean pointed out that some of the players on the team are still in school, which automatically extends the direct impact of the tragedy beyond the city itself and out into the surrounding area.

“This changed the face of Saskatchewan. Rapidly it changed the face of Canada. It changed the face of the game of hockey. Anyone who has a child who is involved in an extracurricular activity that involves any travel, it changed how they feel about that,” the vicepresident said. “Saturday morning, any parent who put their child on a bus looked at that bus a little bit different than they did the night before.”

Having spent a significant portion of the last few days in the hospital visiting the 13 passengers who are still being treated, Maclean spoke very highly of the medical staff.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the first responders,” he said.

Asked about the various gestures of support that have been made across the country and the world in the wake of the accident, Maclean said that Humboldt has been humbled by the outreach.

“So many people have reached out,” he said, adding that the vast majority of people and media have been very respectful of the community and families involved. Far from being troubled by the ongoing media attention on the matter, the former Townshipper said that the members of the Broncos Team that remain want to see the story told.

“Sixteen members of the Humboldt Broncos family will never be able to tell their story again, so it is so important that we tell their story for them,” Maclean said. “Canada is hockey and hockey is people. This is not a story about a hockey team, it is a story about people and it is a story we hope another community will never have to live through.”

Looking to the future, the team vice president said that the Broncos will play again at the beginning of the A bus from Ayer’s Cliff Elementary School with two hockey sticks displayed on the front to show support for the Humboldt Broncos

next season in September.

“We will not let this tragic event be a defining moment for the people we’ve lost, for the community, for the organization, for the game of hockey, and for the province,” Maclean said. “There is healing in the game.”

See photos of ETSB schools who participated in Jersey Day to show their support to the Humboldt Broncos on page 8