Gold Key dinner: Big names on big stage with messages worth hearing

By RICK WILSON
Special to The Collinsville Press

SOUTHINGTON, May 17, 2026 – Messages and Messengers.

There was good weather, good food, good conversation. No matter how you sliced it or what you sliced it with, Sunday was a big day for the Connecticut Sports Media Alliance and its 83rd Gold Key dinner.

The Aqua Turf Club brimmed with the very best the Connecticut sports world has to offer. The Gold Key recipients, a cast of brilliance any stage would be humbled to host.

Yale University’s elegant men’s basketball coach James Jones. Looming large over the crowd as she did on the basketball court and as a basketball analyst was 6-foot-7 UConn legend Kara Wolters.

Looking like she had another thousand wins in her was the Connecticut gold standard for softball pitchers and two-time LSU All-American Rachele Fico. Former major leaguer and standout pitching coach (2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox for starters) Waterbury’s own Dave Wallace was still throwing strikes.

Super Bowl champion running back and standout baseball coach for Sacred Heart, rugged Nick Giaquinto looked like he still had a few more yards left in him and few more wins on the diamond to go. The President’s Award went to Enfield’s Peter King, three-time National Sportswriter of the Year and a writer for Sports Illustrated for 29 years.  Nobody was on board and more thrilled to be there.

The Gold Key Award winners were joined by a dazzling array of Coaches of the Year, Athletes of the Year, media legends, selfless Good Sport Award winners vital to their communities, an Achievement Award winner and a Courage Award winner.

They were big names on a big stage.  And they brought with them big messages.

We tend to focus on the destination which brings the stars to the stage.

The numbers, the championships, the contributions which forced us to pay attention and appreciate.

From a distance what often gets lost is the journey, the hours, the days, the years that hone the craft and create the final product of excellence. The challenge to overcome and produce. There are no overnight stars. There are the disappointments, the dark days and nights that hopefully lead to the bright days.

We were reminded of the ingredients that produce the memorable and special. And also, that greatness comes in many forms. So, you start with 95-year-old Dolores Sawchuk of Colchester, the Bo Kolinsky Memorial Special Recognition Award winner.

Lively and lovely, Dolores played no professional sports, coached no teams, won no gold medals. Maybe she did it all one better as one-woman support system for Bacon Academy athletics. Dolores graduated in 1948, but she never left. A cheerleader in high school (she reeled off one of the Bobcats cheers from the time to the crowd’s heartfelt appreciation) she has been the embodiment of what all athletes need – somebody in their corner for almost 80 years.

The affable King credited his parents for being the type of people that allowed him to go into and thrive in a celebrated career. They were readers, he was a writer. The connection was imperative. He also became the manager of Inside the NFL for Home Box Office.

Giaquinto quietly tapped the lectern to mimic the constant knock on the door, the sign that he was being cut from another NFL team. Both the Giants and Jets let him go. He went to Canada and did not make the Ottawa Rough Riders team. Giaquinto kept on keeping on. Finally, he caught on with the Miami Dolphins and made it to a Super Bowl. The next year he won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins.

It didn’t end there. He would go on to forge a 29-year career as the coach of Sacred Heart University baseball. The former Stratford High and UConn star was always about perseverance.

Wolters reminded us of what it takes to live up to the UConn standard of excellence and spoke about how often coach Geno Auriema yelled at here even throwing her out of practice one day. When she asked him about it, he said, “Start worrying when I don’t yell at you.”

There was much in her diverse words that mixed humor with lessons. Dealing with defeat and failure and learning how to deal with it to make it to the next level. Lessons she is passing on to her daughter Sydney, a player at Roger Williams College in Rhode Island.

Yale coach James Jones’s dream of making it to the NBA never materialized so he made the switch from basketball to the business world. But the love of basketball never left him and he went into coaching. One hoop dream died so he created another and for 26 years he has been a proud representative of excellence with 418 wins turning a program around.

Dave Wallace talked about the importance of family, the grind of being a world class pitching coach and teared up at family sacrifices made.

Fico posted a 105-3 record at Masuk High School and is the measuring stick for Connecticut high school softball pitchers. There are 26 perfect games on the resume and a microscopic 0.07 ERA to go with two state titles. She was thrilled to be back in her state and remembered.

She was back home and reminded us of teammates importance in the journey.

We know where the great ones end up. We read about them; we honor and salute them. We don’t always know the path they take to get there. The messengers at the CSMA banquet – King, Fico, Wallace, Wolters, Jones and Sawchuk, revealed parts of their journey. Parental values, perseverance, dealing with defeat and failure, love of school, family and location.

They are the biggest of messengers with the grandest of accomplishments. They also came packed with big messages. Their destination has been awesome. All fueled by the right ingredients.

It was worth the listen.

More photos from the 83rd Gold Key banquet and dinner.