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. 

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.