Holiday Basketball Event At Mohegan Sun Named For Suffield Legend

UNCASVILLE, CT — In the sports world, most special tournaments or events that are named in someone's honor usually occur after that person has passed on. Not so in the case of an inaugural basketball event which took place Tuesday at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which bore the name of one of the most dedicated and selfless individuals ever to grace the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CAS-CIAC).

Robert "Jiggs" Cecchini, a retired Suffield High School coach, athletic director and principal who served as the longtime chairperson of the CIAC boys basketball committee, was in attendance with his wife Beverly at the Jiggs Cecchini Holiday Basketball Challenge, which pitted four high school teams from Connecticut against squads from neighboring Rhode Island. Organization of the event was a collaborative effort between the CIAC and the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL).

An East Granby resident, Cecchini, 87, was the driving force behind moving Connecticut’s high school basketball state championships to Mohegan Sun in 2009.

"The name Jiggs Cecchini is synonymous with high school basketball," CAS-CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini told Patch. "When you think about education-based athletics and what that means in connecting kids to their schools and communities, Jiggs embodies that spirit."

A native of Barre, Vermont, Cecchini acquired his nickname at birth.

"My father Vigilio was called Jiggs, and when I was born, the doctor came out and said, 'It's a young Jiggs,'" he said in an interview with Patch. "It stayed with me. In Suffield, I'm known as Mr. C, but anywhere else in Connecticut or New England, it's Jiggs."

Cecchini graduated from the University of Maine in 1957, then embarked on his distinguished career as a junior high school physical education teacher. After studying as a graduate assistant in the physical education department at Maine, he and Beverly came to Suffield in 1963, where he stayed for the remainder of his career.

He taught physical education and health at all grade levels and was appointed as director of the physical education department in 1967. Two years later, he became the director of athletics; in 1971, he was named the assistant principal of Suffield High School; and, in 1987, he became the principal of the high school, a position he held until his retirement in 1991.

Cecchini's coaching career was extensive. He coached football and basketball in Maine for five years, then after moving to Connecticut, became varsity football coach at the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in West Hartford from 1964 to 1968.

"Suffield let me do it," he said in an interview with Patch. "My class schedule ended at 2 o'clock and I'd stay until 2:30. ASD was in school until 3:30, so I'd practice from 4 to 6, then eat with the kids."

He coached boys and girls basketball and baseball for a total of 14 years at Suffield High School, and was co-coach of the golf team from 1993 to 1998.

In 1996, he took the reins as tournament director of the CIAC boys basketball committee, and was past tournament director for soccer and golf. He is past treasurer of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and served as its president in 1979. He was inducted into the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame in 1988, and has been honored for distinguished service by the Connecticut Association of Schools, the Suffield Board of Education, the Suffield Rotary Club, the Suffield Booster Club and the North Central Connecticut Conference.

Cecchini was inducted into the CAS-CIAC Hall of Honor in 2016.

"The nicest thing is the people I've had the chance to meet; we all enjoy doing things for kids," he said.

Lungarini said, "His 53 years of service to the CIAC is unmatched right now among active members. We are thrilled to honor him by taking another one of his visions and bringing some of the New England states together to play in this venue."

"It's hard to describe what it means," Cecchini concluded. "I'm just thankful I'm alive and able to enjoy it. It makes me want to do more for the kids."