Manitoba town shelters Sask. high school hockey team after bus stuck in snowbank

Saskatchewan’s Notre Dame Hounds made an unexpected stop in Rathwell, Man., Friday night after their bus went off the road into a snowbank.  

The high school hockey team was on its way to Winnipeg for several games against an academy team when they got caught in a winter storm that snarled much of the Prairie province and shut down sections of the Trans-Canada highway. 

“We went through a bit of a whiteout, hit some snow and the bus ended up getting stuck on the side of the road,” James McGuigan, the team’s head coach said. The bus got stuck around 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Once he knew that everyone on the bus, more than 20 people including players and staff, were alright, McGuigan said it became a matter of “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C to try and get back on the road.” 

A few members of the U17 team were "relatively local” to the area, McGuigan said. “Some of their parents got on the phone and got some people out to take a look at us.” 

He said he knew the team would be taken care of as soon as he started talking to people from Rathwell who arrived to help.

“It’s a small town mentality and they take care of people when they need their help,” McGuigan said. 

Rathwell volunteer firefighters help stranded players

Volunteer firefighter Jeff Jamault lives near where the team’s bus went off the road on Highway 244. He said he got a call from his neighbour asking if they could try using his heavy equipment to pull the bus free. 

“I went there with my loader and I realized right away that pulling this bus out is not going to happen,” Jamault said. 

“It was in deep,” he said, estimating there were almost two metres of snow in front of the bus, and snow up to the bottom parts of several windows. 

With the tow truck about an hour-and-a-half away, Jamault, his wife and another volunteer firefighter started to make arrangements to find the team a place to stay for the night. 

“Given the conditions, I did not think the bus was going to get out that night at all,” he said. 

He called the vice president of the local event hall, Brenda Nostedt, asking if the team could spend the night there, and his wife phoned the community store asking if they could re-open so they could grab supplies.  

“She just told him that we are in a little bit of a pickle and asked him if he'd be willing to open the store to feed 26 hockey players. So he was more than willing to open it up for us,” Jamault said. 

He described the community, 104 km west of Winnipeg, as small, but full of good neighbours wanting to help. 

Team spend night at Rathwell’s community hall

Within an hour, the team had been shuttled to the hall, some in the community’s fire truck, he said, and volunteers started providing food, blankets and pillows for them.

Some of those blankets and pillows came from Nostedt’s home. She said she and her husband grabbed what they could and brought it to the community hall, which normally hosts local socials and fundraisers rather than hockey players. 

She says they were happy to help. 

“What community wouldn’t open up their doors to help out in that situation?” Nostedt said. 

“The hall was just sitting there nice and warm, and that's what it's for.” 

Nostedt and six others helped cook the team a supper of wieners, beans, hot dogs and pizzas as the team played games in the community hall. A neighbour helped watch the children of the Rathwell parents who came to help out, she said. 

A tow truck managed to dislodge the team’s bus late Friday evening, and Coach McGuigan said they were able to make Winnipeg in time for their 10 a.m. game on Saturday, but not before leaving behind a letter thanking the community, signed by all the players, written on the back of one of the team’s lineup cards. 

“I didn’t have a ‘thank you’ card in my backpack,” explained McGuigan.    

The Hounds managed a come-from-behind victory on Saturday, winning the game against Winnipeg's Rink Hockey Academy team in a shootout.   

“When you go through a situation like that, it builds a lot of character and the hockey gods smiled down on us pretty favourably that day,” McGuigan said. 

“A very special shoutout goes to the community of Rathwell because they made sure our boys were safe and they made sure we got on the road again.”