Support and donations continue to pour in for the victims and survivors of the horrific accident involving the Humboldt Broncos. As of Thursday morning, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $9.5 million, and new trends, including placing your hockey sticks outside, have emerged.
The response has been overwhelming and powerful, and it’s evident that so many people across our country are deeply affected, beyond those that lived around Humboldt or personally knew someone involved.
For a lack of a better word, this tragedy is unique in that its Canadian and revolves around the sports community. We hear of school shootings and destructive hurricanes, but we don’t hear of travel accidents involving sports teams very often.
In the hockey world, the first to come to mind is the Swift Current Broncos accident of 1986. That was the last major crash involving a hockey team in Canada, and four people died. There have been others, like the plane crashes involving the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team and Marshall University football team. But a bus accident is that much more relateable.
What hits home is this could have been any of us. Canadians by and large either play hockey, are related to someone who does, or are involved in some other way.
On a local level, the coach of the Broncos, Darcy Haugan, was from Peace River, and family members of his live in Fort St. John, not to mention the many here that knew him as a hockey coach or a friend.
Something that’s often said in times like this, is that sports are just a game and there are more important things happening outside of it.
While those people mean well, it always came across, to me, as if some people felt the need to remind sports fans that there’s more to life than sports. As if we weren’t also human, with the capacity to be rooted in reality, and able to feel love, pain, sorrow, and joy. That’s no doubt due to my own insecurities, but I think it’s a point that should be made.
We are wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, siblings, cousins and friends. We are fans, players, writers, coaches, of a game, yes, but the word game doesn’t do it justice.
Sports, especially hockey, can teach us valuable lessons in discipline, teamwork, making friends, and handling one’s emotions.
And sometimes, that thing, which is a cause for joy, inspiration, and entertainment, can be the same thing that takes it all away. All we can do is show love for one another, the same love we share for a mere game.
Email sports reporter Dillon Giancola at [email protected].
