Family honors Farmington hockey player killed by drunken driver with week of remembrance
A high school hockey player from West Hartford was honored on the ice Wednesday night before a game between the town’s rival teams in memory of another local player killed in a 2022 crash.
The family of Luke Roux, a Farmington ice hockey player who was killed by a drunk driver on June 25, 2022, presented the second-annual Luke Roux Memorial Hockey Award to Conard High School goalie Blake Ittleson before a game against Hall High School.
The award is presented annually to a former West Hartford youth hockey player who demonstrates the qualities Roux’s family says he exemplified: “humility, kindness, discipline, consistency and work ethic.”
Roux had played hockey with the West Hartford Youth Hockey Association and the Farmington Valley Generals High School team.
Roux’s parents, Steve and Carri Roux, presented the award before the game at the Veterans Memorial Rink. Conard, with Ittleson as goalie, went on to win the game 7-2.
“We are proud to present this award today to a young man who has similar characteristics of Luke and shares his enthusiasm for the sport of hockey,” said Steve Roux. “We created the Luke Roux Memorial fund to honor and remember our son while, at the same time, creating more awareness to the destruction caused by intoxicated driving.
“Each time an award or scholarship is presented,” Steve Roux said, “we are purposeful in making sure the message of the dangers of intoxicated driving is highlighted.”
The presentation kicked off a week when the Luke Roux Memorial Fund is “actively creating DUI awareness among the hockey communities in West Hartford and the Farmington Valley,” according to a statement.
Roux was killed while driving home from a summer baseball game in June 2022, less than two weeks after he graduated from Farmington High School. The 17-year-old athlete, musician and academic scholar planned to join his older brothers at the University of Connecticut in the fall when a man driving home from a concert at the Xfinity Theater in Hartford sped through a red light on the Colt Highway near the five corners intersection in Farmington and struck Roux’s car, records show.
Roux died from injuries sustained in the crash. Investigators later learned that the driver who hit him, Jacob Coffey, was intoxicated, records show.
Coffey was convicted of recklessly driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and manslaughter almost exactly a year after the fatal crash and was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.
Through the memorial fund, his family’s goal is to build Roux’s love of hockey into an initiative of awareness that urges people not to drive drunk and encourages kindness.
“The fund is dedicated to supporting activities that helped shape Luke’s distinct character including his love of hockey and the teams he belonged to,” according to a statement.
On Jan. 3, 2024, the second annual Luke Roux Memorial Game will be held in Avon, featuring his former team, the Farmington Valley Generals. The game will take place at the Avon Old Farms Rink, 648 Old Farms Road in Avon, at 7:30 p.m.
“Luke is commemorated through the Fund’s awards and memorial games, aiming to reduce impaired driving fatalities in our community,” a spokesperson for the fund said in a statement.
