‘Heroes to many:’ Support offered to Humboldt students after bus crash kills 15

HUMBOLDT, Sask. — Attention in the town where 15 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team were killed in a bus crash is turning to supporting students as they return to school following the tragedy.

Kevin Garinger, director of education for the Horizon School Division and president of the Broncos, said schools were closed Monday after the junior hockey team’s bus collided with a semi truck northeast of Saskatoon on Friday.

Classes resumed today but Garinger says the focus will be on the well-being of students and staff.

He says some of the junior hockey players were students and others were former students.

Garinger says some teachers also billeted the players.

He says a crisis response team is in place and counselling is being offered to anyone who needs it.

“These were our kids,” Garinger said, choking back tears. “These athletes are and were heroes to many.”

The Broncos junior team was heading to Nipawin on Friday when the crash occurred at an intersection north of Tisdale, Sask. RCMP say 15 people died in the crash and 14 were injured.

As of Monday, two people had been released from hospital and, of the dozen that remain, four were listed in critical condition.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Justice apologized Monday after authorities mixed up the identities of one of the deceased and one of the survivors in the crash.

The coroner’s office mistook the body of 18-year-old goalie Parker Tobin for that of Xavier Labelle. Labelle is injured but alive, and Tobin is among those who died.

The Canadian Press