Director of Humboldt bus crash survivor series shares connection to tragedy

A survivor of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash is at the centre of a new documentary series.

The six-part series follows Ryan Straschnitzki as he works toward his goal of making Canada’s Paralympic basketball team. Regina-based Prairie Cat Productions is putting the series together, with director and co-producer Lucas Frison at the helm.

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“I reached out to Ryan initially about a year and a half ago,” explained Frison, who said he got in touch after reading articles about Straschnitzki pursuing sledge hockey.

“Around that time, I saw that he was making a change to to wheelchair basketball, and (it was) a good starting point for a series, when he’s just starting out on that new journey.”

Listen to Alex Brown’s full interview with Frison on Talk Shots:

The 25-year-old Straschnitzki was paralyzed from the chest down when the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team crashed in April of 2018.

The Broncos were en route to Nipawin for a playoff game when their bus and a semi collided at the intersection of highways 35 and 335, north of Tisdale. Sixteen people on the bus died, and 13 others were injured.

Ryan Straschnitzki, 25, was paralyzed from the chest down in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018. (Lucas Frison/Submitted)

Frison also shares a personal connection to the tragedy. His lifelong best friend Mark Cross, who served as the best man at his wedding, was the assistant coach for the Broncos, and was killed in the crash.

“I’ve always been connected to the community, to Humboldt, and to the story,” Frison said. “It’s pretty special for me to now have relationships with some of those individuals and hear some of the stories from that season.”

Frison previously directed Humbolt: The New Season, a 2019 documentary that followed the surviving players as they trained for the 2018-2019 hockey season with new coaches and teammates while recovering from injuries and trauma.

“There were a lot of tough moments making that one, and it was definitely a healing journey for a lot of the people involved, but for myself as well,” Frison recalled.

Lucas Frison (left), the director of the series, lost his best friend in the 2018 crash. (Lucas Frison/Submitted)

“These young men were 18, 19, 20 years old when the crash happened, and Mark was was coaching these guys and he was 27 at the time. I remember Mark telling me sometimes he doesn’t feel like their coach so much as their friend, because there’s not that much of an age gap. And he was really connecting with them early in his coaching career.”

The docuseries featuring Straschnitzki, which will consist of six half-hour episodes, is in production right now, and is set to air in May 2025.

“We’re going to be shooting on and off throughout the winter coming up here,” said Frison, adding that the series will be broadcast on the Accessible Media Inc. network, known as AMI-tv.

“This is very much a story and a project about what Ryan is doing moving forward. He’s made huge strides in a short time in wheelchair basketball already, and he has the goal of making the Paralympic team in 2028,” Frison added.

“There is some of that backstory, that’s important, and we will touch on it. But it’s about moving forward and seeing what he’s doing in his life now.”