Brock remembered
Friends and teammates have fond memories of former Pronghorns captain
On the ice, Brock Hirsche was an unquestioned leader you wanted on your team, not against you. Off the ice, he was an equally skilled golfer whose long game allowed him to reach par 4s off the tee.
On Sunday, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns mourned the loss of the former Horns captain, who passed away after a battle with cancer. He was 26.
A local product, Hirsche joined the Horns for the 2013-14 season following a Western Hockey League career with the Prince George Cougars and was named the team captain at the start of the 2015-16 season, his third and final year with the Pronghorns.
He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in January of that season and despite successful treatment, his cancer returned in 2017.
Pronghorns teammate and goaltender Dylan Tait and play-by-play announcer Ryan O’Donnell remembered their friend as someone who could shoot a puck, swing a golf club and influence everyone he came in contact with.
For O’Donnell, that started on the links at the Lethbridge Country Club as kids.
“He could hit the ball forever,” said O’Donnell. “There’s one par four at the Country Club on the back nine and it’s 400 yards. I’ve seen him drive the green a couple of times, whether it be down wind or dead calm. I’ve seen him drive the green.”
However, those lengthy tee shots weren’t always straight and true.
“Brock is probably the reason I lost weight in the summer because we’d be looking for his ball lots of times in the hoodoos,” said O’Donnell. “A lot of the times he’s all over the map and you’d walk up and down those hills looking for his ball. Looking back on that, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Tait recalled crossing paths with Hirsche in bantam AAA.
“I think he was one of three first-year players on the team,” he said. “He was just so much smarter than everyone. It was a little bit unfair, I thought, that this guy younger than me was not only smarter, but much more mature and a much better leader than I was. So that was my first impression of him.
“On the other hand I played against him a bunch of times and that was much more difficult because was such a competitor. I hated playing against him, but those are the guys you love to have on your team. It was a lot better when he came to the U of L and I knew I’d never have to play against him.”
Practising with Hirsche, however, proved painful at times.
“He shot the puck so much harder than everybody every time he shot the puck,” said Tait. “I think he tried to shoot it through the net every single chance he got. The number of times he hit me in the shoulder or I palmed one, I know I have bruises and scars.”
Off the ice, Hirsche was just as much a natural-born leader.
Off the ice, Hirsche was just as much a naturalborn leader.
He was also trusted by authority figures.
“He was the guy your parents wanted you to hang out with because they knew you weren’t going to get into too much trouble with Brock, probably just enough trouble,” said Tait. “He could read people and was kind hearted and caring. He cared about how everybody felt. He wanted to make everyone feel as good as he could make them. Just the number of stories I’ve seen in the last 24 hours of people I had no idea he had an affect on. You see the stories and you see that’s the kind of guy he was. He had a genuine affect on so many people.”
An example of his team-first mentality, Hirsche set up a scholarship fund in his name prior to his death which to date has raised more than $30,000.
The Brock Hirsche Pronghorn Hockey Award will annually support a Pronghorn men's hockey player who exemplifies everything Hirsche stood for as a leader on his team and in his community, and as a promoter of men's health issues.
“He was just selfless, he was just a guy you wanted to like,” said University of Lethbridge executive director Ken McInnes. “He was thankful for every opportunity he got, he was a good leader and he wasn’t afraid to step up. He also was pretty open, you knew what he was thinking. He really cares about the guy he plays with. He’s that kind of leader.s
“He was Brock. When you think of team leaders it just made sense that he was the captain.”
Individuals wishing to pay tribute to Brock and support the Brock Hirsche Pronghorn Hockey Award can do so at gohorns.ca/for-brock.