The road into Humboldt is lined with signs of loss.

It’s clear in the green and yellow ribbons tied on trees, and in the hockey sticks sitting out on front porches.

But where there is great loss – there is also incredible strength. The community, struck by unthinkable tragedy on April 6, is now working to heal while staying Humboldt Strong.

 

 

The crash

It was a Friday night around 5 p.m. The Broncos team bus was travelling on Highway 35, heading to Nipawin for a Game 5 semifinal matchup with the Hawks. The season was on the line – after the Broncos lost a nail biter in overtime on home ice in Game 4.

The team didn’t make it to the game. Instead, the bus collided with a semi-truck at the intersection with Highway 335. There were 29 people on the bus – 14 were killed at scene and two more died in hospital. The semi driver wasn’t injured.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The RCMP says it has allocated significant resources into the crash, adding that it has a responsibility to the victims, their families and the community of Humboldt to complete a thorough investigation into what happened on the roads that night.

Broncos President Kevin Garinger has visited the site – only once.

“It was hard to be there,” he said. “But, you also see the love and support that’s there, because it’s there in what people put out and some of the messages and those kinds of things.”

‘We’ll take them with us’

In a city of around 5,600 people, the Broncos players are heroes. Garinger sees this every day – both as the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team’s president and as the director of education at the Horizon School Division, where players stop by to read to students desperate to meet their hockey idols.

Garinger stepped into the role of Broncos president less than a year ago – joining the team’s board to ensure an SJHL franchise would stay in Humboldt. Now, he’s helping put the team, and the community, back together.

“Everybody is at different places in our journey, but we are on a journey,” he said Sunday, sitting in the stands at Elgar Petersen Arena. “We will never forget our family members who are no longer with us, but we’ll take them with us.”

The community is grateful to people across the province, the country and around the world for standing by them in the aftermath of the horrific crash.

“No one wanted to throw a cloak over Humboldt,” Garinger explained. “No one wanted to just try and deal with this ourselves. We knew that we needed others.”

Knowing that people around the world are grieving has helped Humboldt in its journey forward.

“When we grieve together in that way, it helps us because we know there are so many others out there who are sharing the same feelings and sharing the same grief and the same loss that we are in so many ways,” Garinger said. “This really impacted everyone.”

Two months have passed since that day.

“It seems like yesterday and it seems forever ago,” Garinger said. “It’s hard to think back, because it’s almost a bit of a blur in so many ways, and yet at the same time, as we’ve come to a realization that our world has changed forever, I think that we also recognize that we’re not alone in it.”

 

 

Humboldt Strong

Humboldt Strong has become a rallying cry for the team, the community and the world. The term was coined by someone working at city hall in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy – and has spread around the world.

“The strength that is in this community, the strength of our families, our billet families, it’s unbelievable,” Garinger said. “I wake up every day and I think back to the people from our Broncos family who have given me the inspiration to get up in the morning. If it wasn’t for the strength of those people, I don’t think any of us could do anything that we need to do.”

The strength can be seen in family members sharing stories of the people they lost. It can be seen in the survivors, who say they will work every day to honour the memories of their teammates who didn’t make it through the crash.

“When you have that strength, you give it to others as well,” Garinger explained. “That’s helped them, and it’s certainly helped me. And I know it’s helped others around me to be able to be strong, to be able to do what was required.”

“It’s going to take a lot of time. We’ll never really fully recover from anything like this. I think all that you do is learn to live with it, and you learn to live with the fact that many of your family members are no longer with you and you carry them with you and take them with you as you continue down that path toward the future – whatever that future looks like.”

‘The face of this organization was Darcy Haugan’

Since April 6, Garinger has spoken for the team, the victims, the survivors, the families, and for Humboldt.

But, before April 6, it was someone else who spoke for the team.

“The face of this organization was Darcy Haugan,” Garinger said. “He was the face, he was the heart and soul of this organization. We relied on him so much.”

Haugan, who coached the team for three years, was killed in the crash. Without Haugan, the role of Broncos spokesperson fell to Garinger.

“Ultimately that had to sit on someone’s shoulders,” he said. “And it’s not a position anyone envies, to be honest with you. But, at the same time, it’s something that has to be done.”

Garinger has had to be the voice of the organization, as well as the voice of the families, if they needed that support. He’s handled it all with grace, drawing on the strength of those around him to be strong himself.

 

 

‘Grieving together’

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, ripples of shock and sadness could be felt all across the world.

People donned jerseys to show support for the team, and one tweet inspired people worldwide to leave a hockey stick out on their porches, because “the boys might need it, wherever they are.”

Broadcasters added microphones to their hockey sticks for Tyler Bieber, the Broncos play-by-play voice who died. When the team’s athletic therapist, Dayna Brons, died in Saskatoon hospital days after the crash, trainers added their medical kits to their porches.

“There’s so many people who care so deeply and have been so impacted by this,” Garinger said. “If we just leave it, if we don’t do anything at all, the grief that they’re feeling and the healing they need, I think, won’t be there.”

So, Garinger is making sure to share Humboldt’s journey towards healing with the world.

“We’re healing, and we’re healing because of them – and they can heal because of us, hopefully.”

 

 

Outpouring of support

A GoFundMe page started by Humboldt resident Sylvie Kellington had a modest goal of raising a few thousand dollars.

In the weeks following the crash, it smashed records, becoming the largest GoFundMe in Canada and raising more than $15 million. Using the money from the GoFundMe page, the team formed the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Fund. Last month, the Broncos announced that a legal process had begun to help handle the millions of dollars collected. The team hopes to have the money distributed in the next couple of months.

“That’s all about making sure the legacy of our families, the legacy of the Humboldt Broncos is going to be able to live on,” Garinger said.

The support has been more than just monetary. Garinger said he has received messages, phone calls, poems, songs, and endless other tributes to the team from people hoping to offer whatever support they can.

“The outpouring of support has just been, it’s been sometimes overwhelming, it’s been very healing,” he said. “We certainly have heard you, we’ve felt your love, and that’s been really important to all of us.”

Healing through hockey

The team announced in May that it will return to the ice next year. The Broncos are in the process of rebuilding their roster and hiring a coaching staff for the 2018-19 SJHL season.

Along with Haugan, assistant coach Mark Cross died in the bus crash.

“It’s met with mixed emotions,” Garinger said. “Darcy Haugan was near and dear to every one of us, and Mark and everyone who was within that organization who is no longer with us. It’s hard to come to grips with it, but we know that we have to.”

“There is that healing that happens through sport, and hockey is healing.”

The team has wrapped up an expanded training camp – inviting 120 players instead of the usual 80. Garinger said the Bantam draft went well, and there will also be a dispersal draft to help rebuild the team.

“We’re really almost like an expansion club in a lot of ways,” he said. “Except the Humboldt Broncos have a long, storied history here.”

Ten players died in the crash, and others are recovering from catastrophic injuries.

“We had 23 young men on that team that were on the bus, and we’re hopeful that there’s a couple of them who can make it back and play. That’s what our hope is,” Garinger said. “Through their strength, I have no question that their heart and their minds are wanting to be back on the ice. So then, it’s a matter of making sure that physically that all things are good and lots of things are pointing in the right direction.”

Garinger said there are players who weren’t on the bus – who are eager to be part of the rebuild.

“As you go through those processes and you’re putting your team back together, you’re also recognizing that there are many who will not be here and you’ll carry them with the organization forever,” he said. “People care deeply about our organization and making sure the Humboldt Broncos exist and are a competitive franchise in the SJHL and in the CJHL.”

The Nipawin Hawks dedicated their SJHL Championship win over the Estevan Bruins to the Broncos. The Bruins stopped at the crash site on their way to Nipawin in that series.

Garinger said the cohesiveness of the SJHL had been starting to fall apart, but the crash has brought the league closer than ever.

“We are close and things like that speak volumes to not only Nipawin, but to the league and to the other teams in the league,” he said.

 

 

‘We’ve got to move forward’

Through everything, the community has been blown away by everyone’s eagerness to help.

“Nobody has asked for anything, we really have not wanted for anything expect for thoughts and those kinds of things,” Garinger said.

“That’s what’s been incredible here. Even through all of that, the community, the hockey community, the football community, everyone is just, they’re stepping up and supporting.”

The Broncos will continue to rely on people supporting them as they move forward into the next phase after the crash, moving along a journey towards healing.

“In the end, we are unfortunately not able to turn back time. Because, we’d turn it back and take it all back in a second, even just for one second. But, we’ve got to move forward.”