If the CIAC ever decided to expand its Scholar/Athlete concept to organizations, it might well consider the Torrington chapter of UNICO. “We’re not a sports organization,” UNICO President Brian Mattiello emphasized in a Saturday morning get-together, along with scholarship co-chairmen Paul Denza and Pat Finn.

Neither is any CIAC Scholar/Athlete strictly a basketball player or a soccer player. That’s the whole point of the CIAC award – the balance outstanding kids – a girl and a boy from each Connecticut high school – maintain between community service, academics, sports and leadership.