‘Devastating’
DeSales University mourning 3 people killed as another fights for survival. Here are their stories.
The ripple effect.
That’s happening now at DeSales University as the community mourns the death of three of its own and prays for the recovery of another.
The news of a fiery, one-car wreck in Upper Saucon Township hit hard late Saturday night, rippling to all corners of the university: the baseball diamond, the classrooms, the dorms and the administration buildings.
“It’s all strung together,” longtime DeSales baseball coach Tim Neiman said. “From that standpoint, I have to admit it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a little overwhelming.
“But I will do what I must do,” he pauses, the 62-year-old’s voice cracking, “and be here for all these guys.”
Sean Hanczaryk, a 21-year-old senior and a baseball player, and former DeSales outfielder Nick White, a 23-year-old who graduated in 2019, were pronounced dead at the scene, as was 24-year-old Emily Kattner, also a 2019 graduate and White’s girlfriend. Another senior baseball player, Brandon DiChiacchio,
is in critical — but stable — condition at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, facing many surgeries in the weeks ahead, the university said.
Details from authorities have trickled in slowly, but the Lehigh County coroner’s office said Monday evening that White was the driver of the vehicle. White and Kattner died from blunt force injuries to the head, while Hanczaryk died from multiple blunt force injuries. The coroner’s office ruled their deaths an accident.
The coroner’s office and Upper Saucon police continue to investigate.
Upper Saucon police Chief Thomas Nicoletti on Monday could not say what factors may have played a role as the vehicle left the road and hit a tree in the 4400 block of Lanark Road just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Reconstruction of any fatal crash is time-consuming, Nicoletti said, but the scope of Saturday’s wreck and the number of lives lost made it more so.
“This has been very sad, very tragic,” the chief said. “We have a duty to get this right. We want to make sure we have it all correct before we release any more information. We’re doing our best.”
It’s been a long, difficult two days for DeSales.
Neiman found out about the crash at 11 p.m. Saturday, when one of his players called him at home and said there had been a bad accident. Much of the team was gathered at the hospital, awaiting news about their friends. Neiman arrived around 11:30 p.m., and he and the team stayed until 1 a.m. before heading to Billera Hall on campus. There, they, along with other students, gathered for about 45 minutes, just to be together.
By 2:30 a.m., Neiman got a call and found out the accident was, indeed, fatal.
Now, here he is, a coach entering his 32nd year who knows full well that coaches share in their players’ joys and burdens. He knows he’s responsible for them. This situation is unparalleled, but it reminds him of a past heartbreak when he had to tell a student that his brother had died by suicide. Neiman spent the day with him and drove him home to New York, a 90-minute drive, and he didn’t know what to say.
“I can’t describe this, or anticipate it — and you can’t,” Neiman said. “But we’re in it, and we have to find a way to move forward. I’m here for these kids, and that’s first and foremost, and I’ll take care of myself later. But for now, I’ve got to see these kids through what is absolutely a devastating time.”
Neiman thinks the group of four may have been seeing friends in downtown Allentown, where White recently got an apartment, but he’s not sure of the circumstances surrounding the crash. What he knows is one young person is fighting for survival, while the community lost three others who were just starting their lives.
Just two days gone, the memories of the four friends remain fresh. Here are their stories.
Sean Hanczaryk
On Sean Hanczaryk’s Twitter page, a Tweet from Oct. 12, 2018 is pinned: “Spend everyday putting a smile on someone else’s face.”
Neiman and others reshared that Tweet in recent days.
“He lived that every day — every day,” Neiman said.
Hanczaryk was a great impersonator, someone who could have a conversation with you and then speak and act exactly like you. If Neiman ever needed a smile, he’d ask Hanczaryk to impersonate a coach or player. The whole team would crack up.
“He was gifted,” Neiman said. “He maybe could have made a career out of that. I’m smiling just thinking about that.”
He was a young man who had his finger on the pulse of a lot of things. Pop culture. Music. Movies. Sometimes Neiman would have to bring him back to Earth, since Hanczaryk could get so wrapped up in conversation.
“He knew when to be firm and when also to lighten up,” Neiman said. “He had great balance to his personality, his demeanor and his life.”
Balance, as it were, is a great help in baseball, especially among catchers like Hanczaryk.
A 2017 graduate of Delaware Valley Regional High School in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, he excelled on the diamond and was chosen as a first-team All-Area catcher in 2017 by The Courier News.
At DeSales, his game appeared to improve with each season. As a freshman, he hit .266, then improved to .291 in 2019 as a sophomore. Before the 2020 season was cut short by the pandemic, the sport and exercise physiology major was off to a hot start, batting .324 through 11 games.
The senior, listed at 6-foot-1, wore No. 23 and was expected to play even better this year. Neiman said the left-handed hitter swung the bat well, with some power, and played the game very hard.
“This preseason, he looked as good as ever and was primed for a memorable senior year, I’m sure,” he said.
Hanczaryk has a younger brother, Dan, who is a pitcher on the team.
“I feel so bad for him right now and their family,” Neiman said. “We’ll watch over Dan. We’ll watch over Dan. I promised his parents we would.”
A GoFundMe created Sunday to support the Hanczaryk family raised more than $27,000 by 7:30 p.m. Monday, exceeding its $20,000 goal.
On his Twitter page, under his name, Hanczaryk channeled John Lennon with this advice: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.”
Nick White
When Nick White came to visit DeSales, he was a senior in high school whose family was moving to Pennsylvania from The Woodlands, Texas. In theory, White planned to visit a bunch of schools.
“We were the first one and turned out to be the last one,” Neiman said. “He called me an hour or two later and said, ‘Hey, I’ve read about DeSales, and I’m coming.’ ”
What DeSales got was a big boy — all 6 feet, 3 inches of him — with a welcoming personality. The outfielder also improved dramatically on the diamond from his 2016 freshman campaign to his senior season.
White, who wore No. 18, hit .188 in 15 games as a freshman. By his junior season in 2018, White hit .320, with 39 hits and 29 runs scored in 41 games. He smashed three home runs and drove in 19 RBIs on his way to being named All-MAC Freedom second team.
Neiman said the game didn’t always come naturally to White, but he was a sponge, absorbing everything he could to progress on the field.
His senior year, White hit .415 and was named to the All-MAC Freedom first team as well as second team for the ABCA Mid-Atlantic region.
White’s memory already is sinking in. Neiman said a freshman who was going to wear No. 18 texted him Monday: “Coach, I don’t feel it’s right to wear Nick’s number.”
White, who graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in communication, also appeared to be settling down in the Lehigh Valley. He met fellow 2019 graduate Emily Kattner and got an apartment in downtown Allentown. In August, he became a sales center leader at Bimbo Bakeries USA in Bethlehem Township, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He also did some reporting for Service Electric Network, starting as an intern there in summer 2018 when it was called SEC TV2. The network, in a Tweet, called White “a hard worker and a pleasure to be around,” someone who “will forever be part of our SEN team.”
In his reporting days, he didn’t forget his alma mater.
The DeSales baseball Twitter account’s pinned Tweet is a 2019 report from White on the opening of the team’s baseball stadium, Weiland Park.
In the 2 ½-minute segment, White interviews his old coach, Nieman, and signs off ...
“On the scene at Weiland Park, I’m Nick White for 2 Sports.”
Emily Kattner
Not all magazine work is glamorous, but Emily Kattner didn’t seem to mind. In summer 2018 as a marketing and event coordinator intern at Lehigh Valley Style, she even took enjoyment in the mundane tasks such as dashing off emails or calling local businesses.
“She was just one of those girls, she was special,” Publisher Pamela Deller said. “Everyone thought she was special. She was a lovely, poised, soft-spoken young woman. She loved fashion.”
When Kattner arrived at the office each morning, Deller said everyone would stop and comment on her outfits. “Runway ready” is how Deller put it. And the young woman was always smiling.
“She was literally like walking sunshine,” Deller said.
Kattner helped plan the Best of the Lehigh Valley celebration in 2018 and particularly loved working on the magazine’s Style Scene. Her July 6, 2018, story provided a “guide to being the best dressed at the Best of the Lehigh Valley celebration.”
In a statement the magazine posted on social media Monday, Lehigh Valley Style remembered Kattner as a “beautiful soul.” Deller, who said she found out about the crash Sunday from Kattner’s high school cheer coach, said the magazine’s staffers all cried during their morning chat Monday.
“She was a soft-spoken and kind soul who loved fashion, trips to New York and was always willing to jump in and assist wherever she was needed, and always with a smile,” the statement read. “Our hearts go out to her family, friends and loved ones along with the loved ones of the other lives lost.”
Kattner, who grew up in the Jim Thorpe area, Deller said, graduated from DeSales in 2019 with degrees in marketing and business administration, according to her resume. She also spent time as an assistant store manager at HomeGoods in Langhorne.
In a statement, Sue McGorry, assistant provost and a business professor at DeSales, remembered Kattner as someone with a generous spirit.
“During her last semester at DeSales, she served as the Campus Champion for Gift of Life and inspired all of her classmates with the amazing story about her young cousin who had become an organ donor,” McGorry said. “She accepted the Gift of Life award for her family that spring. Her contributions to DeSales and the community are extraordinary, and she will be sorely missed by all of us.”
On Facebook, one of Kattner’s friends remembered her for her love of Taylor Swift and expressed sadness that the two would never be able to attend a concert together.
“I am still waiting for the footsteps outside to be yours coming to knock on our door,” the friend wrote.
Praying for Brandon
As DeSales remembers the three lives lost, they also hope for the recovery of Brandon DiChiacchio. Lanark Road neighbors said he was rescued from the car and dragged across the road to the opposite shoulder. The fire spread quickly after that.
DiChiacchio, who wears No. 8, plays second base for DeSales and is coming off a hot start to a shortened 2020 season that saw him batting .375. Neiman said he mostly played shortstop at Springfield High School in Delaware County, where he also was the football team’s quarterback.
He, too, was primed for a big 2021 season and would have been the team’s starting second baseman.
“Right now, we’re just hoping we can get him back and at least he can be around the team,” Neiman said. “But it’s still a very, very road long to go. He needs all of our prayers we can give to him.”
Sports seem trivial at a moment like this, but it’s also the greater baseball community that has reached out to Neiman and his players to offer support. Neiman said it’s too early to know whether the team’s season will kick off as scheduled this Saturday at home. That will be decided by the players, Neiman said, in the days ahead.
“The vibe I got from most of the upperclassmen was Sean would want us to play,” he said. “I think that’s true, but we need to get the pulse from everybody.”
Maybe some routine will be good for everybody, Neiman thought. The field, after all, is going to need some raking as the rest of the snow thaws in the days head.
But it still will be a tough moment to step onto the field, or into the dugout, or into the bullpen.
When they do, they’ll be thinking of Sean, Nick and Emily.
And hoping Brandon joins them soon.
“They’re clinging to that,” Neiman said. “That’s their hope right now. If that should take a wrong turn, I don’t know … I don’t know … that could be insurmountable for the long term, but for now, they are all clinging to his recovery.”