updated 9:36 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2008

BATHURST, New Brunswick - Seven high school basketball players killed in a weekend traffic accident were eulogized Wednesday as loving sons and trusted friends who will be remembered forever in their heartbroken hometown.

The funeral for the seven boys brought the city of Bathurst to a standstill as schools and businesses closed and about 5,500 people crowded into a hockey arena and an adjacent rink to hear the service.

"You have lost your precious sons," Bathurst Mayor Stephen Brunet told the families of the boys. "We have lost seven future leaders. For a moment just imagine in your mind what they could have done."

A van carrying the basketball team collided with a truck Saturday, killing the seven students and the coach's wife, whose funeral will be held Thursday, on their way home from a game.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Derek Strong said the seven players — between the ages of 15 and 18 — were pronounced dead at the crash site after their van crossed the center line and hit the tractor-trailer shortly after midnight.

The accident occurred as the team was making a three-hour return trip from Moncton in Canada's far eastern New Brunswick province to their hometown of about 12,700 people after a storm dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain on much of the province.

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