The heartbreak being experienced over the deaths of the 15 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team in Saskatchewan is a tragically familiar feeling for people in Bathurst, N.B.

Ten years ago, seven members of the boys’ high school basketball team and the coach’s wife were killed in darkly similar circumstances.

The decade-old memories came flooding back this weekend for Chris Quinn.

“I don’t really like to think about those days to be honest."

His son Nickolas played basketball for Bathurst High School. He was one of the eight people killed when their van slid into the path of a transport truck in January 2008. That day also happened to be Nickolas’ 16th birthday.

Quinn says his heart is with those who are mourning the loss of their loved ones in Saskatchewan following the accident on the weekend, and that everyone will grieve in their own way.

“You’ve got to do it,” he says. “You’ve got to be where you are, I mean you can’t change it, you can’t move faster, you can’t move slower. You’re going to move at your own pace. Where I was that doesn’t mean where you are, everybody’s going to be different.”

Support for those who lost loved ones in the Saskatchewan crash has come in from around the world, just like it did in the days and weeks following the Bathurst tragedy.

Quinn says that support helped him deal with the loss of his son.

“It just made it easier, really, I mean you’re not alone, you know other people are there even though they may not understand what you’re going through, they know, they want to help you through it.”

Students at Bathurst High School wore green ribbons in show of support for those mourning in Saskatchewan.

“We’re trying to let everyone know that we support them 100 per cent,” says Reilly Riordon, president of the student council. “Letting them know they’re not alone in that there are lots of people they can reach out to that’s why we’re supporting them so much here at Bathurst High today.”

Understanding the emotions flowing through the community, Bathurst High Principal Shaun MacDonald called his counterpart in Humboldt.

“I offered my support just like people offered to me when we went through the same tragedy.”

Stephen Brunet was mayor of Bathurst when the seven players and the coaches’ wife were killed.

He said it will be hard but life will and must continue.

“You can’t live right here in our little community, you have to go out and expand so you can learn and right now as we speak I’m sure there are buses on the road, there’s kids on the road somewhere but you can’t stop living,” Brunet says, “you’ve got to carry-on.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.