By Michael Walsh
Central Connecticut State University football player Rich Royster and CCSU student Brittany Mariani were identified as the victims of a car crash that occurred on Saturday morning on the Charter Oak Bridge in Hartford.
According to police, Royster, 20, and Mariani, 24, died after the car Mariani was driving crashed into the back of a parked tractor-trailer northbound near exit 90 at approximately 4:45 a.m. The truck driver was not injured.
Royster, of Ossining, N.Y., was a junior psychology major and a defensive lineman for the Blue Devils appearing in 10 games for the team this past season. Mariani, of Ludlow, Mass., was a senior psychology major one course shy of graduating. The two had been dating.
In an e-mail sent to all CCSU students by Mark McLaughlin, Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications, plans for a memorial are underway. Details will be announced by the school as soon as they are available.
“I’m sure I speak for the entire campus in saying that we are deeply saddened by this terrible loss of promising young lives and we extend our warmest sympathies to Brittany’s and Rich’s families,” said McLaughlin in the e-mail.
A press conference was held on Sunday by the athletics department acknowledging the loss of both students.
“It’s a terrible tragedy to have lost two such bright and vibrant and enthusiastic young adults who had such great promise and were doing such great things on this campus in their respective rights,” said Athletic Director Paul Schlickmann.
Counselors were made available to students on campus beginning Saturday evening and will continue to be available to students and members of the campus community throughout the week.
“We immediately put into place some counseling services right here in Kaiser Hall for our student athletes, for the entire campus community,” said Schlickmann. “We had them here early last evening and through the night and those were utilized by several student athletes as well as our coaching staff.”
Schlickmann added that the department met with the football team on Sunday evening to begin the process of talking about the tragedy, something that Schlickmann was looking forward to.
“I think when you learn of something like this you immediately try and put together or begin the plan of making sure things are in place and people are being taken care of,” said Schlickmann. “I think it will be really good for us to come together and begin to talk as a group and as a family.”
Schlickmann, who since becoming the athletic director at the end of the spring 2010 semester has been an advocate of building an even stronger campus community, often stressed the importance of CCSU being a tight-knight community as something that will no doubt come into play in the campus healing process.
“I think for me, for these young men, our coaches, our staff, our all students on campus, I think that is important that we try and hold on to all the positive and joyful memories we had of both Rich and Brittany as something to lean on, to help us get through this,” said Schlickmann.
[Updated: Monday, January 24, 11:15 p.m.]