Earlier this month, the Humboldt Broncos’ team bus was involved in a collision with a semitruck near the intersection of two Saskatchewan highways — resulting in the death of 16 people and the injury of many others.
Humboldt, a city located in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada is where the Canadian junior hockey squad called home. And although it is nestled over 1,500 miles away from Albuquerque, a road trip of over 24 hours, UNM head hockey coach Grant Harvey said it hit close to home.
“It’s so crazy, I don’t (have a connection to the Humboldt Broncos) at all,” Harvey said. “It took me a little bit of time because it made this weird feeling in my stomach like it had happened to us.”
He said he sent a group chat to the players on the Lobo hockey team and said he just couldn’t wrap his mind around what happened. A day later Grant said he spoke with his father and told him he wished there was something he could do to help out — to which his father replied “Well then, do it.”
There were already several GoFundMe campaigns started in an effort to help support the families affected by the accident. Harvey said he was aware of them, but thought it would be unique if UNM hockey were able to pull some money together with its own fundraiser and reach out to one player on the team.
He said he thought it would have a different feel if his hockey club was able to positively impact and connect with somebody on an individual basis. So the head coach set up the Humboldt Bronco Scholarship Fund, a GoFundMe campaign that sought to raise $5,000 in the hopes of providing a scholarship to one of the surviving players.
Harvey said he had no idea which Bronco player would be the recipient of the fund, but he wanted to let him and the community know that — even though the cities are so many miles apart — they were not suffering alone.
The head coach said he didn’t know anything about the Humboldt community, other than that it is a small one. But he said he knows a lot about how small Canadian cities like that support hockey, and the loss would be felt by everyone in it.
“I’ll tell you something that I do know...in Canada, these small towns are real big on their junior teams,” Harvey said. “The parents lost their kids, but that whole town lost 15 kids. (It) lost 16 people — 15 boys that day.”
Nate Taglialegami, a center on the UNM hockey team, said he and his teammates initially thought Harvey was talking about donating to the main GoFundMe account — which has raised over $15 million in Canada (nearly $12 million in the U.S.).
But once Taglialegami understood his coach’s intentions, he said the team was onboard and among the first to donate to the cause.
He said he never thought they would reach the goal, but the hockey community and people of New Mexico and beyond came through. He said there were a lot of donors who may not have known a thing about hockey or Humboldt, but were generous enough to do something to help.
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Taglialegami said, “Let me know if there is anything I can do,” is something that a lot of people say. But often times, they don’t follow through. He said it feels good to know that he and his team did something.
To help the cause, Harvey also auctioned off a UNM hockey retro turquoise jersey on eBay, which had a winning bid of $800. The head coach said getting one’s hands on a jersey is a rarity, as there had previously only been one non-player to be given one.
At the time this article was written, UNM hockey’s GoFundMe had not only met the desired goal, but has continued to receive support and climb to over $6,000 in donations. But even prior to the goal being met, Harvey said he had no intention of placing a ceiling on the fundraising effort. Harvey said that in addition to the monetary support for a scholarship, he hoped it would help raise the spirit of the player and the community.
“I think every time they find out that people are not only mourning with them but rallying around them, I think it’s a good spiritual rebuild for the city,” he said.
When asked how the Broncos’ crash has affected him and his team, Harvey said he and the players have probably been “a little bit more mushy” in group chats and telling each other how much they appreciate one another.
He said it was a dose of reality on how quickly life can be taken away in any moment. And with the amount of travel the team does, Harvey said he thought they all made an acknowledgement about how lucky the team has been on the road.
“Any road trip we take now I think (there will) be an extra prayer,” he said. “It’s a reminder that getting to our destination is not automatic.”
Taglialegami expressed similar sentiments, saying news of the crash was hard to hear because of some of the similarities he noticed between the two teams.
He said he felt the Humboldt Broncos were a really big part of a really small community and — with the Albuquerque hockey community also being small and tight-knit — he said he would continue to appreciate the role he plays in it.
“One thing I would probably take away from this is to always stay active in my community," he said. “Just to be there for everyone. Who knows when that time could come for some of us? So just don’t take anything for granted.”
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball and football and contributes content for various other sports as well. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
