The BSU hockey team mourned the loss of its president, James Crockett, at its fundraiser Sunday, two days after he was killed in a crash in Avon Friday.

When he was first learning how to speak numbers, a young James Crockett would often skip numbers that he didn’t see on the shirts of hockey players.

“He would say his numbers, one, two, three, four, seven, eight,” his grandfather, Dan Crockett, 66, recalled Sunday. “The hockey players, he knew them by them by the numbers on their jerseys, and if there was a number missing, well it wasn’t a number.”



His love for hockey led James Crockett to become the president of the Bridgewater State University hockey team – and as he played the sport he loved, his grandfather, Dan, who is also the team’s athletic trainer, proudly watched him on the ice.



His family, the team and the entire BSU community are now mourning the loss of the 22-year-old Crockett, a Rockland resident who was killed when his car collided with a tractor-trailer truck on Harrison Boulevard in Avon early Friday morning.



Crockett was the second member of the team to die in the past six weeks.



On June 10, Matthew Benting, 20, of Pembroke, died suddenly from an unknown medical emergency.



Mike Monahan, head coach for the BSU hockey team, said Sunday that the entire team is stunned by Crockett’s loss, just weeks after Benting’s death.



“This isn’t real. It’s hard to fathom that it happened again,” Monahan said while on his way to Sunday’s annual team fundraiser at Southers Marsh Golf Club in Plymouth.



James Crockett organized Sunday’s fundraiser in Plymouth, said Monahan and his teammate, Peter Drowne, 21.



The team held a moment of silence for their beloved teammates during the fundraiser, said Drowne, who called Crockett thoughtful and “a great kid, really outgoing.”



“He was always one of the people who would speak up and always be around to help the guys,” said Drowne, of Bridgewater. “He worked at the rink. If anybody needed their skates sharpened he’d bring them in, sharpen them and bring them back.”



Monahan, a 2008 graduate of BSU who also played hockey as a student, recalled seeing James Crockett as a boy sitting alongside his grandfather on the bench during games.



“I remember years ago always giving him high-fives coming off the ice,” said Monahan. “He was always hanging on the bench with his grandfather. He was always giving the guys high-fives on the bench.”



He recalled Crockett’s love for hockey and being around the Rockland Ice Rink most days.



“He grew up in the ranks. He worked at the pro shop at the Rockland rink,” Monahan said. “He was just, year-round, always working around the rink, always around the rink.”



James “always was one of the first guys to show up and always gave his best and tried the hardest,” Monahan said. “He’s just an example of what you wanted to see. Just an awesome guy.”



Police said the crash happened at 5:13 a.m. Friday when Crockett, driving a 2013 Chrysler sedan, collided head-on with the tractor-trailer, causing his car to crash through the guardrail and go off the road into the woods.



Norfolk County District Attorney spokesman Mike Connolly said that while the crash remains under investigation, he does not anticipate there will be charges.



Dan Crockett said his grandson was on his way to work at Harrington Bros Corp., a sheet metal manufacturing company in Stoughton, when he died.



James had played two hockey games in Foxboro on Thursday night, went home, left his hockey bag in the kitchen and went to work the next morning, his grandfather said.



While the crash remains under investigation and no official cause has been released, Dan Crockett said his grandson may have fallen asleep at the wheel.



An only child and an only grandson, James Crockett was studying sports management at BSU with plans to work in the athletic field, his grandfather said. He taught disabled students how to play hockey and baseball, which he also loved.



“It’s just devastating,” Crockett, 66, said. “He was a great kid, very compassionate. He could teach kids how to play hockey. He was going to make a great father and a great hockey coach.”



Meanwhile, Drowne said the team will play in honor of Crockett and Benting during the upcoming hockey season.



“We were going to play the season for Matt, but we’re going to be playing it for two of our brothers,” Drowne said. “We’re going to be out there fighting every game.”