‘You will always be true in my heart’
Fifteen people on a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team died when it was struck by a tractor-trailer. A look at some of the lives lost in Friday’s tragic crash in Saskatchewan:
TYLER BIEBER
Bieber, a local radio personality, was play-by-play broadcaster for the Humboldt Broncos.
In a post on Facebook, his brother Brandon said, “I don’t know what to do or say right now but I know one thing is you will always be true in my heart.”
Bieber will also be remembered as a dedicated coach to the Humboldt Collegiate Institute boys basketball team.
MARK CROSS
Broncos assistant coach Mark Cross, a native of Strasbourg, Sask., was “passionate about the game” — and inspired that same passion in the kids he mentored.
He played for the midget AA Lumsden-Bethune Lions. Years later, he coached the same team in the 201617 season, before moving on to Humboldt. Lions head coach Scott Frizzell remembers him as a “great leader.”
“He made an impression ... that won’t soon be forgotten,” said Frizzell.
Cross played for the Estevan Bruins. He then pursued a kinesiology degree at York University, where he played for five years for the U Sports team. But he soon came back to Saskatchewan.
“Mark was the salt of the earth,” Frizzell said. “He was very approachable. He loved the game.”
DARCY HAUGAN
Darcy Haugan was into his third year as head coach and general manager of the Humboldt Broncos. He took over the team on short notice before the 2015-16 season.
Haugan, a native of Peace River, Alta., and his wife Christina, who an office manager for the Broncos, have two boys, Carson and Jackson.
In Haugan’s first season, the Broncos missed the playoffs for the first time in 36 years, but Haugan turned the team’s fortunes around.
As a player, he was a defenceman who played his minor hockey in northern Alberta and junior hockey in the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the Fort Saskatchewan Traders and then Bonnyville Pontiacs and finally in the SJHL with the Estevan Bruins.
From there, he received a scholarship to play hockey at Northern Michigan University. After one season, he returned home and obtained a power engineering diploma while playing hockey for two seasons at Briercrest College.
Haugan spent a short time playing professionally in Sweden before returning home to join the coaching ranks as an assistant coach and then interim head coach with the Estevan Bruins.
After 12 seasons of leading the North Peace Navigators of the Northwest Junior Hockey League, he returned to the SJHL to coach the Broncos.
ADAM HEROLD
Adam Herold held the highest leadership position on the Regina Pat Canadians’ roster last season, principally because he did not put himself above others.
“Adam was the most selfless guy on the team,” Pat Canadians forward Matt Culling said. “That’s why he was our captain. He always put the team first no matter what.”
Herold, a Montmartre-born defenceman, who joined the Broncos this season, would have turned 17 on Thursday.
“He was so down to earth and was the most kind-hearted kid I knew,” Culling said. “His presence in the locker-room always pushed for our team to be better — not just better hockey players, but better human beings. He had a laugh that could spark a room and a smile that could lighten it.”
BRODY HINZ
Broncos president Kevin Garinger remembers the team’s volunteer statistician, who died in the crash early Friday evening, as an “amazing young man” who adored the hockey club.
“He had an amazing mind for stats and he was a huge asset to the coaching staff,” Garinger said, noting that Hinz travelled with the Junior A hockey team “on a regular basis.”
“Anything the coaching staff needed, he was willing to help ... If that was in his capacity to do, he would do it. He gave his heart and soul to the organization.”
JAXON JOSEPH
A former Surrey Eagles player from Edmonton, Jaxon Joseph was “a glue guy” who got along with everyone and helped hold the team together, said Eagles general manager Blaine Neufeld, who was Joseph’s coach for the 2015-16 season.
“He was respectful of everyone and that made you respect him. He had it together. He always seemed like the kind of guy who was going to find success after hockey, no matter what he did,” Neufeld said.
XAVIER LABELLE
Humboldt Broncos defenceman Xavier Labelle was a hard-working hockey player who also excelled as a piano player and a student.
Labelle played 83 games for the Contacts in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League over two seasons before moving on to the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
“He worked hard,” Jim McIntyre, governor of the Saskatoon Contacts, said. “He was a good student. He was bilingual.”
Labelle, born in Saskatoon, was in his second year playing for the Humboldt Broncos.
CONNER LUKAN
The Slave Lake, Alta., native joined the Broncos this season after spending three seasons with the Spruce Grove Saints in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The 21-year-old forward was one of seven players on the Broncos with roots in Alberta.
LOGAN SCHATZ
Schatz, of Allan, Sask., played for the Broncos for just over four years, and had served as team captain for the past two and a half years, his father said.
Schatz was one of the league’s “best-kept secrets in scouting circles” and a Top 3 pre-season favourite to win the league scoring title last season, according to a recent profile by the SJHL.
That plan was derailed by a “freak elbow injury” last year, but the left-shooting centre recovered and scored 18 goals in the first 48 games of this season, the league said in the profile.
Schatz had an opportunity to play in the Western Hockey League but chose to remain in the SJHL because he had a chance of playing for a U.S. college team next year.
EVAN THOMAS
The right is remembered as a young man who was “devoted” to hockey.
Allan Wallace, a neighbour in Saskatoon’s Silverspring area, said his daughter used to babysit Evan as a young boy. He remembers seeing him playing street hockey with friends, and said he always seemed an “excellent” player.
Thomas comes from a hockey family. His father, Scott Thomas of Naicam, Sask., once played for the Moose Jaw Warriors. He is now the president of the Saskatoon Blazers. The team sent out an email saying they had “lost a loved one” in the crash.
STEPHEN WACK
Stephen Wack, a 21-year-old defenceman from St. Albert, Alta., joined the Broncos in 2016, after a season with the Whitecourt Wolverines. A family member said Wack’s parents are in Saskatchewan.