Off Sidel: Rest in peace, Kurtis

Kurtis was one of five victims of a tragic house fire last weekend and passed away along with his sister and step-sister and two people close to the family.

When I heard the news Monday night, my mind immediately jumped to the years we were friends in high school and how much fun we had together.

Surprisingly, we had never crossed paths before despite being the same age and having played the same position in the same organization for at least a couple of years.

There were three goalies playing peewee A that year – the last of the fabled Wings and Flames teams in NDG, and Kurtis and I were eventually placed on opposite teams.

As part of a tandem on the Wings, Kurtis led his team to a first-place finish while we ended up in second and our teams had some of the best and most exciting games I can ever remember playing in NDG.

In the end, we were both eliminated in the playoffs, but we emerged with a budding friendship that was formed on the ice and cemented in the classroom as we both attended Wagar High School.

School was actually where we were the closest that year and he was one of my first friends in high school.

I clearly remember us sitting next to each other in MRE class discussing hockey, hockey and nothing but hockey while our teacher rambled on about something neither of us never learned.

We also would take the bus home together and spent most lunch hours kicking a tinfoil ball at each other in some form of a game we thought was close enough to hockey to be fun.

When it came to hockey, for some reason Kurtis always had the edge on me.

The following year, he moved up to BB while I stayed at the A level and from there we started spending less and less time together.

Obviously being in different divisions we interacted far less, and our course schedules diversified away from each other as well.

Kurtis was part of the “Five-Year Club” that graduated from Wagar in 1998 along with the rest of us, but despite having gone to school together for half a decade, we totally lost touch after high school.

The last I had heard, Kurtis was going to join the army and that was it – until about three weeks ago.

Through the wonders of Facebook, Kurtis and I started talking again and I was genuinely interested in catching up with him. In fact, with our 10 year reunion coming up this spring, he was one of the people I was really looking forward to seeing.

We chatted briefly and I found out that indeed, he had joined the army and had actually served for six months in Kosovo at one point.

This year he would be coaching a bantam BB team, he told me, and actually asked if I’d be interested in helping him out with the goalies.

I was thrilled to have the chance to get to know one of my old buddies again and help out his team.

Now we’ll never get that chance.

Kurtis and I may not have established a lifelong friendship, but he is someone I’ve often thought about when looking back on my teens and growing up.

He and his father Karl, who miraculously survived the fire, were always kind to me despite our constant competition for a roster spot and we always laughed and had a good time together.

The community’s thoughts and prayers are certainly with Kurtis, Karl and the rest of the Hansen family.

Rest in peace, my friend. You will be missed.