The Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy in northern Saskatchewan Friday afternoon which claimed the lives of 15 people cuts deep into the tight-knit hockey community and both junior teams in Prince George have personal ties with some of the accident victims.
Prince George Spruce Kings defenceman Dylan Anhorn played spring hockey for five years with Broncos defenceman Ryan Straschnitzki, 18, and was billeted with Humboldt centre Derek Patter, 19, when Anhorn got called up to the Olds Grizzlies in the 2015-16 season.
Both Humboldt players survived Friday's accident.
"I have two friends on the team and fortunately they both made it out alive, which is unbelievable," said Anhorn, a 19-year-old native of Calgary. "Ryan had back surgery because he doesn't have feeling in his legs right now and we're praying for the best for him and the other one is Derek Patter who I billeted with for a little bit in Olds. He's the nicest kid you'll ever meet and it's so heartwarming they both made it out of there.
"They've given me the OK (through texts) that they're doing alright and that helps a lot. Derek's injuries were a bit more minor because he didn't mention them to me. Obviously you just feel terrible for all the victims."
Anhorn's Spruce Kings begin the B.C. Hockey League championship series Friday in Wenatchee, Wash., and while the Broncos' accident highlights the potential danger of highway travel he says he's not worried about the long trip ahead of his team.
"You can't think about it because there are so many junior teams on buses and the odds of it happening are super-rare, but whenever something like that happens it makes you double-think about it," he said.
The Spruce Kings players, coaches and staff gathered together Saturday morning to meet with grief counselors and pastors who offered their support to help them deal with shock of the accident.
"I didn't personally know any (Broncos) staff or players but I know some of our players did," said Spruce Kings head coach Adam Maglio. "I'm not sure what that relationship looked like but I know they crossed paths in their careers. At this point we're just here to offer support and prayer for the families and for anyone who was close with any of the members that passed away.
"The point of (the meeting) was to make sure they had the proper contacts to reach out to talk to. Everyone's different with grieving and they might not even have a relationship with a Humboldt player or staff member but it could be an issue of the travel and being a little bit scared about that and getting on the bus.
The support group that came in today spoke to the group and it was more of a contact point for further discussion one on one or in small groups, showing the guys they have somebody to talk to."
The Kings are preparing to meet the Wenatchee Wild to decide the Fred Page Cup final and on Wednesday will board the bus for a 13-hour trip to north central Washington. Both teams are in the league final for the first time.
"It's such a tragic event, your heart goes out to the families and everybody that's affected by it and hockey seems not important when you have events like this that occur," said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
"The world is small but the hockey world is smaller and we have some players on our team who were teammates with these guys in minor hockey and have friends who unfortunately were involved in this accident and that's what we're dealing with."
Hawes discussed a potential trade this season with Broncos head coach and general manager Darcy Haugan, 42, who was among those killed in the crash.
"I've spoken with him several times over the past couple seasons and he was actually in town last year for the Telus Cup and was here for the whole tournament scouting for the Broncos and I chatted with him on a couple of occasions," said Hawes.
"He was just a great guy. Not everybody is easy to deal with when it comes to trades but he was a straight-up guy, an honest guy, and he was easy to talk to and seemed fair. We weren't able to come together on the trade but he seemed like solid guy and I know he will be sorely missed in the community and in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League."
Like the Western Hockey League Cougars, the Spruce Kings are the northernmost team in their league and long bus trips come with the territory. The team logs between 20,000 and 25,000 kilometres per season, not including playoffs, more than any other BCHL team. Each return trip is about a 2,000 km journey.
"Without question we have the most in our league, it's significant," said Hawes.
The Spruce Kings play in the Mainland Division and are eight hours away from their closest divisional opponent in Chilliwack, while the Cougars' closest road game is in Kamloops, six hours away.
Among the players killed was Stephen Wack, a 21-year-old defenceman chosen by the Prince George Cougars in the eighth round of the 2012 WHL bantam draft. He attended two of the Cougars' training camps before starting his junior career in the AJHL with Camrose and Whitecourt. He played for Humboldt the past two seasons.
Cougars director of scouting Bob Simmonds is based in Edmonton, close to where Wack grew up in St. Albert and got to know the family before and after the Cougars drafted him.
In a Twitter post, Simmonds said: "My sympathies to the Wack family on the passing of Stephen in the terrible Humboldt bus tragedy. Stephen was a remarkable young man who the @PGCougars drafted & I consider myself fortunate to have known Stephen & his family & know their remarkable journey."
Wack was a six-foot-two, 180-pound defenceman when the Cougars drafted him in April 2012 and by this season had grown to six-foot-six, 220 pounds. Cougars general manager Todd Harkins said the team wanted to sign him two years ago but Wack and his family decided to play junior A instead to try to lock up an NCAA college scholarship.
"It's devastating," said Harkins. "From an organizational standpoint and from somebody who works in the business as a general manager and as a parent of two kids who played in the league, it's the worst nightmare that you think about.
"It's something you don't want to think about and that's why parents always want to make sure their kids are going to a safe place to play because you never know when something like this is going to happen.
"Jonas (Harkins' youngest son) now plays in Regina and he travels those same highways in Saskatchewan and it just makes you wonder. You think of the families and all the billet families, there are so many people who are affected in a tragedy like this when it involves a hockey team, it's not just the parents of the kids. It takes a village to create a hockey player and the outcome of this is so many people are affected and devastated, and not just in Humboldt. It's a trickle-down effect from the NHL right down to every young kid who aspires to be a pro hockey player."
As the death toll climbed to 15, Saturday was a day of mourning all over the hockey world. In Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks replaced the name bars on the backs of their jerseys with the word "BRONCOS." Other NHL teams wore Broncos logos on their helmets.
One of the youngest players who died in the accident, defenceman Adam Herold, played in Prince George last May at the Telus Cup midget national championship for the Regina Pat Canadians. He would have celebrated his 17th birthday next Saturday. Herold captained the Pats this season and was a second-round pick of the Prince Albert Raiders in 2015. He was one of the players in the discussions when the Cougars traded Kody McDonald to the Raiders in January.
"I'd watched Adam play quite a bit at the Mac's tournament," said Harkins. "This is how close it hits home because all these are all kids you've scouted or talked about and now I just feel so horrible for the families."
Another of the players killed was forward Jaxon Joseph, 20, who played half of the 2015-16 season in the BCHL with the Surrey Eagles. In the final game of that season on Feb. 28, 2016 in Prince George, Joseph scored the Eagles' first goal in a 7-2 loss to the Spruce Kings.
Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk didn't know any of the Broncos' players but played for the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars against Joseph's father, former NHL defenceman Chris Joseph.
"It's a very emotional day and hockey is a very small world, we all live in it together and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and billets and players and the organization," said Matvichuk. "This isn't just something that's going to go away, it's a horrible day for everybody and the hockey community has to stay strong and whatever we can do from the Cougars' standpoint moving forward to help, we're going to be there.
"This hits really close to home with everybody, especially here with the amount of travel that we do. We're almost spoiled when you consider what (Cougars bus drivers) Ralph Posteraro and Don Witala do for us, for the hours we spend with these young men on the bus. We're grateful to have two of the best that there is in the business."
Witala has been driving sports teams across provincial borders for nearly 40 years. He's had a few close calls with animals on the highway and wayward drivers going too fast around corners but never came close to what happened Friday when a semitrailer truck T-boned the front of the Broncos' bus.
"It's everybody's worst nightmare," said the 71-year-old Witala. "When you go on the road you always keep your eyes open and you just hope you never run into that situation."
Witala knows the responsibility which comes with the job, most often driving through the night in winter road conditions, but he's not bothered by the risks of his profession.
"There's times when you can't see five feet in front of the bus from the snow coming down in blizzards but you keep on driving slow, just taking your time and cautious, and most of the time if you drive to road conditions you're alright," he said. "Ralphie and I never worry about ourselves, it's just the other people coming at us. Every guy that passes you, you can't take your eye off the road for two seconds because the other one could drift across the centre line."
Bus drivers are allowed to work a maximum of 14 hours per shift without relief, which includes time when they are with the team and not driving. So when the Cougars head to Alberta, Posteraro will drive a courtesy car to Jasper the day before and will take over from Witala once he arrives there. For extended trips into the U.S., Manitoba or Saskatchewan, Witala will fly to Edmonton, Kelowna or Vancouver to get behind the wheel of the bus for the last leg of the journey back to Prince George.
In a 36-road-game regular season, the Cougars' bus logs close to 40,000 kilometres. One night, a few years ago, Witala recalls when freezing rain left the highway treacherous and the team had to spend another night in a Kamloops hotel rather than take the risk.
"Drive BC was warning people not to go and the next morning there were semis in the ditch and cars upside-down," said Witala. "I always drive the same way I drive my own vehicle, just drive to road conditions. If it dictates 30 kilometres an hour then that's what I do. All you want to do is make sure you get everybody home and safe."
Witala and Posteraro have seen news clips and photos from the accident scene and from what they can determine, weather conditions did not appear to be a factor in the accident.
"There are so many things that happen with bad roads and fog and rain and snow and then to have this happen on what looked like a dry road in good visibility, you keep asking yourself why," said Posteraro, who has driven the Cougars bus for 18 years. "It sounds like the truck went through a stop sign and one comment I heard from someone was that because he was going west and the time of day, maybe the sun was in his eyes and he couldn't see.
"What is it, fate or destiny, but how do two vehicles in a place where there isn't much traffic end up at the same place at the same time? I've almost had tears in my eyes all last night and all day and why? I keep putting myself in that place. It's the worst scenario ever."
An online fundraising page has been established to help the players and families affected by the tragedy. The page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/funds-for-humboldt-broncos.
