The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League has yet to decide if it will finish out its season, league president Bill Chow said on Monday.
The SJHL's Board of Governors will hold a conference call on Wednesday to decide the immediate future of the league. The SJHL was in middle of its playoffs when one of the teams, the Humboldt Broncos, was involved in a fatal bus crash on Friday. Fifteen people -- including the head coach, players and the bus driver -- died, and 14 others were injured.
Chow also announced that the league is establishing an assistance fund to help the Humboldt Broncos as well as the other 11 teams in the league. The fund will provide mental health assistance and counseling for all players. The Canadian company Co-Op has already committed $150,000, and will match retail donations for up to $500,000.
Chow also said the SJHL has looked into the Go Fund Me page, which has raised more than $5 million. Chow said, to his knowledge, that money will only go to the families and players affected by the bus tragedy and that cannot be deviated from.
The news conference was held at the Broncos' home arena, which has become a crisis epicenter. Sheldon Kennedy, a former NHL player who was a survivor of another junior hockey tragedy in the 1980s, was on hand to offer support. A bus carrying Kennedy and his teammates on the Swift Current Broncos crashed in 1986, killing four. Kennedy said counseling was not made available to him in the immediate aftermath.
"We definitely didn't know the impact of PTSD and mental health and the effects of trauma," Kennedy said. "Thirty-two years ago, we didn't even talk about this. We know more today."
Sheldon reiterated that the effects of this tragedy will be far-reaching. He said that anyone affected should not expect to go to one or two therapy sessions and expect to be healed.
"We know better [now] so we can do better," Kennedy said. "We know the scars that last a lifetime are real. ... We have to be able to have something sustainable for those people that is long term. That's what we learned coming out of the '86 crash."