Hockey town a place of tears, support
Families gather at arena that is at best, now worst, of times hub of Humboldt
HUMBOLDT, SASK.— The air inside the Humboldt Broncos’ home arena feels heavy, grief as suffocatingly thick as the silence blanketing the usually raucous stands.
The rafters that shake with thundering cheers are now empty, save a few people with red-rimmed eyes, staring at centre ice with heads in hands. The steps minor hockey fans normally use to file in for games are covered in flowers. And the hub of this tight-knit prairie town — now 15 loved ones smaller — has become the centre of a tragedy that has reverberated across the country.
“It’s surreal,” said Jamie Brockman, a former president of the Broncos, shaking his head. He used to host players from out of town, but not this year.
“Thank goodness,” Brockman said, that none of his boys were out there.
The Broncos were on their way Friday night to a highstakes, must-win playoff game in Nipawin, about a two-hour drive north, when their bus and a tractor-trailer collided. Among the dead were the head coach, Darcy Haugan, play-by-play radio announcer Tyler Bieber, team captain Logan Schatz and forward Jaxon Joseph, son of Chris Joseph, who once played in the NHL. The RCMP confirmed the 15th fatality Saturday afternoon. There were 29 people on the bus at the time, including the driver. The rest were injured, some critically.
The driver of the truck wasn’t seriously hurt. RCMP said he was briefly in custody after the accident but has since been released. It’s too early to know if any charges will be laid, police said.
“The driver has subsequently been released. He’s also been provided with some mental health and wellness assistance,” RCMP Asst. Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said Saturday.
Police say the bus was travelling north on Highway 35 to Nipawin for Game 5 of a playoff series.
About 5 p.m., the truck was heading west on Highway 335 when it collided with the bus at an intersection south of Nipawin. The force of the crash sent both vehicles into a ditch at the northwest corner of the intersection.
Aerial footage showed the bus on its side, its roof peeled back and its front end destroyed. The trailer of the truck lay nearby in a shattered mess, with bags of its peat moss cargo scattered all around. The tractor part of the truck was intact, lying on its passenger side.
The tractor-trailer would have had to yield to a stop sign before crossing over the highway that the hockey bus was travelling on. There is a stand of trees on the southeast corner of the intersection, limiting visibility of the approach on both roads.
Zablocki said a lot of issues have to be investigated, including weather conditions at the time and any mechanical issues with the vehicles.
“It’s too early to comment on the cause of the collision,” he said. Humboldt, like so many smaller communities in Canada, is a hockey town.
Kids join recreational leagues as soon as they’re old enough. On game nights, the arena, attached to a local high school, is filled. A small hockey mural graces the side of a bank on Main St.
Even players from elsewhere become ingrained the community, bunking in local billet families — and turning the tightknit prairie town into a de facto home for young men from across western Canada. Some were from Alberta — Slave Lake, Edmonton and Airdrie — while others were from Manitoba, or grew up watching the Broncos in Humboldt.
“Our kids look up to that, to our organization and our athletes,” Broncos president Kevin Garinger said. “That’s our NHL.”
But that means the grief from the tragedy has spread even further, Garinger said. One of the young men who died, among those who haven’t been officially identified by RCMP, lived with him last year.
“They were brilliant kids,” Garinger said, glasses in his hand, wiping away tears. “I certainly know some of what (his) parents are feeling right now.
“It speaks to what Darcy Haugan always said, which I always respected … He would say, ‘Kevin, I wanted you to know. My goal is not to raise hockey players, my goal is to raise young men and the hockey playing is kind of a byproduct.’ And he did.”
In the Elgar Petersen Arena Saturday, families gathered and embraced, many were in tears as they laid flowers. Many wore the signature white, green and yellow jerseys of the Broncos. Others wore black. A vigil will be held in the arena Sunday night.
The Broncos had been a contender for the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League title – Friday’s game was a semifinal — but also maybe a national one. Excitement had been building at home games earlier in the week, said Garinger, hope for something big. But for now, that’s over. Above all, Garinger said, the community is grateful – for the support of the town, for the support of those who gave over $2 million to a GoFundMe page supporting the victims’ families, for the outpouring of love they’ve felt from across the country.
In good time, once they have their feet back under them, he says, the team will figure how to go on. But not yet.
“At this point, we don’t even know how people can help,” Garinger said. “We’d trade it all to have our kids back.”
“My goal is not to raise hockey players . . . (but) young men.” KEVIN GARINGER QUOTING BRONCOS COACH DARCY HAUGAN