SEILING o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-07 published
A close-knit community mourns death of National Hockey League
player
Anthony REINHART visits the hometown of Dan
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER, a kid who
just wouldn't quit.
By Anthony
REINHART
Tuesday,
October 7, 2003 - Page A3
Elmira, Ontario -- On the main street of Elmira, three slabs
of polished black granite rise from a fountain in Gore Park.
The monument, erected in 2001 after a string of car accidents,
bears the names of those taken too young. The name Dan Snyder
will now join a list that's grown too long, too quickly for this
bucolic town of 9,600, better known for its maple syrup and Mennonites.
Mr. SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER, a 25-year-old forward with the Atlanta Thrashers
of the National Hockey League, died Sunday night, six days after
teammate Dany
HEATLEY lost control of his speeding Ferrari and
crashed on a narrow Atlanta street.
In the wider world of sport and celebrity, Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER will be
remembered, perhaps only briefly, as the latest professional
athlete to die in the fast lane.
But it's different here in his hometown, a short country drive
north of Kitchener-Waterloo, where community ties are drawn tight
by blood and strengthened by sidewalk familiarity.
Here, Mr. SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER will be remembered as a scrappy, hard worker
who refused to listen when they said he was too skinny, too small,
too whatever to play mid-level junior hockey, let alone in the
National Hockey League.
"He just kept proving people wrong," his uncle, Jeff
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER,
said yesterday outside the old brick house where Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER had
lived with his parents.
"And we were hoping that he'd be able to do that again this week,
but that's one battle he couldn't overcome, I guess."
The fight of Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER's life began on the night of September
29, after he and Mr.
HEATLEY, the Thrashers' 22-year-old scoring
sensation, left a social gathering with the club's season-ticket
holders.
Mr. HEATLEY, according to Atlanta police, was driving his 2002
Ferrari 360 Modena at about 130 kilometres an hour when he lost
control and struck a fence made of brick and wrought iron.
The car was sheared apart, and both men were thrown to the pavement.
Mr. HEATLEY, who suffered a broken jaw and torn knee ligaments,
faces several charges. Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER suffered a fractured skull
and died of brain injuries without regaining consciousness.
People who knew him said he would have never driven so recklessly
himself, that he preferred his pickup truck to the flashy cars
that a fat paycheque affords.
"That's not Dan," said Bob
CUMMINGS, who taught Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER in
grade school and helps manage the Junior B Elmira Sugar Kings,
for which Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER, his father and his uncle all played.
"He enjoyed life, but he respected life."
Standing in the Sugar Kings dressing room yesterday afternoon,
Mr. CUMMINGS described a career rife with hints why Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER
took so little for granted.
Even the Sugar Kings, one rung down from the level where the
National Hockey League drafts most of its talent, had their doubts
when he arrived for the 1994-95 season.
"By the end of the season, he was probably one of the best players
we had," Mr.
CUMMINGS said.
His hard work caught the eye of the Junior A Owen Sound Platers
(now the Attack,) but just barely; they drafted Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER in
the seventh round.
"He beat those odds and became the captain," Mr.
CUMMINGS said,
"probably the best captain they ever had."
Still not deemed good enough for the National Hockey League,
Mr. SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER became a free agent and landed with the Thrashers'
farm teams in Chicago and Orlando, where he helped both win league
championships.
Atlanta finally called him up in the latter half of last season.
He scored 10 goals and four assists in 36 games. "That isn't
bad for a kid at the National Hockey League level who wasn't
supposed to play Junior B," Mr.
CUMMINGS said.
An ankle injury, resulting in surgery last month, was expected
to delay Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER's start with the Thrashers this season. Still,
he was excited, just five days before the crash, when team officials
told him to find a place to live in Atlanta, his uncle said.
"He had really earned the respect of the people at the highest
level of hockey in the last half of last year," Jeff
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER said.
The people of Elmira shared in that excitement, as they have
several times since the
SEILING brothers (Rod and Ric) and Darryl
SITTLER from nearby St. Jacobs, made the big time decades ago.
Now, they are left mourning yet another one of their young.
Matthew SHANTZ, 13, paid his respects yesterday by walking into
Central Source for Sports on the main street to order a Thrashers
jersey, complete with Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER's name and number.
Matthew, who hopes to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs one day,
said he met Mr.
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER a couple of times, since his father knows
the SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER family.
"It's bad," he said simply, standing in front of the store, where
plastic letters spelled out "We Remember Dan
SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER" in the window,
beneath a Thrashers jersey.
Mr. SCHNIEDER/SNIDER/SNYDER's funeral will be held in Elmira on Friday.
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