Humboldt community gathers for vigil to honour team members

By News Staff and The Canadian Press

The community of Humboldt, Sask., will gather Sunday to mourn at the home arena of the Broncos junior hockey team following a crash that killed 15 people.

Fourteen people were also injured when the team bus collided with a tractor trailer at a highway intersection on Friday.

Tonight would have been game six in its SJHL playoff series against Nipawin.

Watch the live stream of the event here starting at 9 p.m. ET

The stories of the 15 lives taken when a bus carrying a junior hockey team crashed with a truck continued to emerge Sunday.

The manager of defenceman Adam Herold’s previous team, the Regina Pat Canadians, confirmed his death to The Canadian Press. The defenceman would have turned 17 on Thursday.

John Smith noted that Herold played for the Regina team until just weeks ago, but was sent to join the Broncos for their playoff round when the Pat Canadians’ season wrapped up.

Smith described Herold as a hard worker and a good leader, noting that Herold was team captain for the 2017-2018 season.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Justice says one of the deceased was misidentified. The ministry says the body of Parker Tobin was mistaken for that of Xavier Labelle. It says Labelle is injured but alive, and Tobin is among those who died.

Brody Hinz, who was 18, had recently started tallying the team’s statistics for Humboldt radio station CHBO.

Golden West Radio says in a statement that Hinz was being mentored by Tyler Bieber, the team’s play-by-play announcer who was also killed in the crash Friday.

Bus driver Glen Doerksen’s employer, Charlie’s Charters, posted about his death on Facebook. Another team he drove for, the Kinistino Tigers, also issued a statement.

“In talking to him, he spoke at length of his time in rinks with his own family and now how much he enjoyed being able to take and watch other teams from minor, to senior to SJHL to their hockey games,” a spokesperson for the Tigers wrote on Facebook.

“We will never forget the smile on your face as we left Allan after winning the Championship and got you to give ‘two honks for the Cup,'” they wrote.

York University described assistant coach Mark Cross as an “exceptional young man” and a “ferocious competitor” in a press release on Sunday morning.

Cross spent five seasons with the Lions before graduating in 2016 and moving on to work with the Broncos, where he was also helping to recruit potential players to come east to play for the university hockey team.

“Mark was in his element in the hockey arena and I could think of no better mentor for junior hockey players to have than Mark Cross,” said the university. “He has been taken away from us much, much too soon.”

Evan Thomas, 18, was a forward in his first season with the Broncos, according to the Kelowna Rockets, who quoted former Rockets captain Scott Thomas as saying he had lost his son.

The others killed include the junior hockey team’s head coach, Darcy Haugan, captain Logan Schatz, forwards Jaxon Joseph and Logan Hunter and defenceman Stephen Wack.

As of early Sunday morning, a crowdfunding effort on the website GoFundMe had raised more than $3-million for the players and families affected by the crash.


Related stories:

Cause of the Saskatchewan bus crash unknown
Arena is where we will gather to mourn, remember the Broncos
‘Horrific, horrific accident:’ Hockey world in shock
Humboldt, Sask., was second home for many players in fatal crash
Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy reacts to Humboldt Broncos bus crash
NHLers reflect on junior hockey bus culture in wake of Humboldt tragedy


Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today