Suffield Sportsman, East Granby Resident Selected For Statewide Honor

SUFFIELD-EAST GRANBY, CT — One of the most dedicated and selfless individuals ever to grace the Connecticut scholastic sports scene will be honored this fall by members of the state's sports media.

Robert "Jiggs" Cecchini, an East Granby resident who was a longtime coach and administrator at Suffield High School, has been selected recipient of the Hal Levy High School Achievement Award by the Connecticut Sports Media Alliance (CSMA). He will be feted at the 81st Gold Key Dinner on Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.

Cecchini, 87, was the longtime chairman of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) boys basketball committee, and was the driving force behind moving Connecticut’s high school basketball state championships to the Mohegan Sun Arena in 2009. The Jiggs Cecchini Holiday Basketball Challenge, pitting four high school teams from Connecticut against Rhode Island, debuted at the arena in 2022.

He and his wife 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 coached boys and girls basketball and baseball for a total of 14 years at the 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.

Three more award recipients were announced by the CSMA this week:

• Bob Casey Courage Award – Ann and Paul Dagle, East Lyme. After their 19-year-old son took his own life in 2011, they formed the Brian Dagle Foundation, and annually address hundreds of male and female student-athletes about their loss, as well as the importance of mental health, suicide awareness and prevention. They also opened Brian’s Healing Hearts Center for Hope and Healing in Niantic in 2018.
• Bo Kolinsky Special Recognition Award – Rand Pecknold, Quinnipiac University men’s ice hockey coach. For the first time in program history, the Bobcats captured the Division I NCAA championship, upending Minnesota 3-2 in overtime on April 8. Quinnipiac finished with a 34-4-3 record, giving Pecknold 615 victories since taking over behind the bench in 1994.
• Art McGinley Media Award – Vickie Fulkerson, New London Day. She has provided thorough coverage of high school, college and professional sports for more than three decades, and was recently inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She serves on the CSMA Gold Key Award nominating committee and as Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame program biographer.

Gold Key recipients for 2023 are Darien High School volleyball coach Laurie LaRusso, longtime Norwich Free Academy coach and athletic director Gary Makowicki, 1976 Olympian and former distance running world record setter Jan Merrill-Morin, North Branford High School field hockey coach Babby Nuhn and 27-year Major League Baseball umpire Terry Tata. Dr. Leslie Wrixon of Glastonbury, winner of the 1982 Manchester Road Race women’s division while still in high school, will receive the President’s Award.

Tickets for the Gold Key Dinner are $75, and are available by contacting CSMA president Tim Jensen of Patch Media Corp. at 860-394-5091 or tim.jensen@patch.com. Proceeds support the Bo Kolinsky Memorial Sports Media Scholarship, a $3,000 annual award named in memory of the noted high school sports editor of the Hartford Courant and past CSMA president, who passed away in 2003 at age 49.

Winners of the Doc McInerney High School Coaches of the Year, Bill Lee Male Athlete of the Year, Hank O’Donnell Female Athlete of the Year and John Wentworth Good Sport awards, as well as the Kolinsky scholarship, will be announced in late June.