Hamilton’s Troy Smith heads to Humboldt and hockey’s most unique coaching challenge.

Hamilton’s Troy Smith does not know what to expect as he joins the Humboldt Broncos coaching staff eight months after the bus crash that took the lives of 16 team members, but he couldn’t say “no” to the opportunity, Scott Radley writes.

He's a hockey guy who's been making a living in the junior hockey world for over a decade now, so maybe the awful tale of a bus — and so many of the young lives on it — being wiped out en route to a game hits a little closer to home to him. But you don't have to be in that business for the Humboldt Broncos to mean something.

If you're human, you get it.

So when Hamilton's Troy Smith got a call out of the blue a few days ago asking to join the rebuilt outfit as an assistant coach, his immediate reaction as a coach eager to get back on the bench was, "Yeah, do it." Then he started thinking about it a bit, and realized what a unique challenge he might be undertaking if he accepted.

Click Here to view Scott Radley's full Hamilton Spectator article