Jordan Bogress was back on the ice Saturday afternoon with a heavy heart.
The 18-year-old from Ladner began the season in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League as a member of the Humboldt Broncos. On Friday, 15 team members were killed and 14 more injured in a horrific bus crash en route to a semi-final playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks.
Bogress spent three months in Humboldt before returning home and re-joining his hometown Delta Ice Hawks who are now preparing for the upcoming Cyclone Taylor Cup provincial junior “B” championships. He initially learned of the tragedy on social media then some of his Ice Hawk teammates reached out to him as well.
“I didn’t really know what had happened so I looked further into it. I was in disbelief. I’ve been trying to keep it out of my mind but (the news) is all-around us now,” said the Delta Secondary graduate.
The victims include Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan and team captain Logan Schatz. It was through the advice of a coach at Trinity Western, Haugan scouted Bogress and convinced him to bring his career to the small hockey crazy town of just under 6,000 people.
“Darcy was a great players coach. He was always concerned about how you were doing. How was it going with your billet family. Hockey was important to him but he was also a very caring person,” said Bogress.
“They were just a good group of guys who had played together before and Schatz was a great leader as well. It’s just brutal to see something like this happen.”
Bogress decided to return home for personal reasons that included plenty of urging from his Ice Hawk teammates. He had been slowed with injuries but did manage five points in nine games, including a pair of goals. He was billeted with the family of the team’s chaplain and certainly was there long enough to know how much the Broncos mean to the community.
“I could tell right off the bat just how tight of a town it was. It’s the same idea as here but Ladner also has so much else around it. In Humboldt, all that matters is their hockey team. They have a nice rink and everyone came to the games,” he said.
Bogress had rode on the same bus that was involved in the accident. He says it was a typical team atmosphere for those road trips with “guys watching movies and just trying to get comfortable.”
He was happy to escape the tragedy for at least a couple of hours as he trained with his Delta teammates. “It’s good for me to be in an environment like this right now.”
The Cyclone Taylor Cup starts Thursday in Richmond with the Ice Hawks taking on Kootenay International Junior Hockey League champion Kimberley Dynamiters at 3:30 p.m. The four-team tournament concludes with the medal games next Sunday.
