Thousands mourn New Brunswick basketball players

Students held hands and sang songs in front of a packed arena in Bathurst, N.B., where thousands of mourners gathered to remember seven teenaged basketball players who died in a traffic accident early Saturday while returning home from a basketball game.

“You have lost your precious sons; we have lost seven leaders,” the city’s mayor, Stephen Brunet, told the family and friends of the boys, as well as the many other complete strangers showing solidarity with the grieving families. “We must be strong.”

At the front of the arena, pictures of the popular high school basketball players were displayed above each of the seven coffins strewn with red and white flowers.
 
Many of the students, dressed in the red and black school jackets, were overcome with emotion and grief as they sang. One teen played the guitar by the coffin of Daniel Hains, who reportedly loved the instrument.

The 3,000-seat arena was packed, yet most of the public mourners were watching a video feed of the funeral from outside the building.

 
The families entered the arena through a pair of basketball hoops placed on each side of a door, lined with players from another local ball team.

 
The eighth victim of the accident, music teacher Beth Lord, will be remembered at a private funeral on Thursday.