Never Give Up Your Dreams
By Ken Lipshez | Sports Correspondent at May 3, 2024 | 9:00 am | Print
Inspiration oozed from every pore and tears from every duct in the room as Karen Newman told her story.
Newman, a world-class tri-athlete from Greenwich, was chosen by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance to receive the Bob Casey Courage Award at the 72nd Gold Key Dinner held Southington at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.
Newman, 51, is a breast cancer survivor, who just refused to let the disease put an end to her dreams.
“I remember the exact time when the word cancer entered my world,” she said. “It was March 18, 2024 and it was 4:58 p.m.”
Just three days after receiving her first chemotherapy treatment, the Greenwich resident was in Vancouver, British Columbia, to compete in a triathlon. She vividly recalled how cold she was and how her limbs trembled, but she finished.
Last August, she finished eighth in the women’s 50-54 age group in the sprint distance of the USA Triathlon National Championships. Two months later, she finished second in New Zealand. Two months after that, she was told that the CSWA wanted to honor her at an event that has come to represent inspiration. Four months later, she held the crowd of 250 in the palm of her hand.
“To be here is really a miracle,” Newman says. “This is for every single person who is battling a disease. Never give up your dreams. The impossible is possible.”
But inspiration comes in many forms at the Gold Key Dinner because of the win-win situation it presents.
On the one hand, it provides the CSWA with a forum to honor athletes and coaches who have woven greatness into the fabric of the Connecticut sports scene. On the other, it enables the Alliance to present scholarship money to college students yearning for careers in sports journalism.
In that regard, the 2013 Gold Key Dinner brought together the likes of New Britain nonagenarian Alton F. Brooks and Dara Rubin, a senior at Masuk High School in Monroe.
Brooks came north from Arkansas during World War II and has spent a lifetime improving conditions for African-Americans in New Britain through sports (basketball) and religion (The Spottswood A.M.E. Zion Church).
Rubin, the 2013 recipient of the Bohdan M. Kolinsky Memorial Journalism Scholarship, is headed to Northwestern University after compiling a 4.67 grade-point average and competing for the Panthers in track and cross country.
“You go, girl,” said Mike Gminski, former Duke University and NBA star as he held up a Masuk cap. Gminski, now a basketball commentator for CBS Sports, flew back to his home state to accept one of the five Gold Keys distributed this year by the CSWA.
Inspiration has also found a home in Berlin and in the Cheshire High School athletic community, embedded in the hearts of John Wentworth Good Sport recipients Dan and Theresa Lee.
The Lee’s suffered the ultimate loss in 2011when their son Ryan, a brilliant two-sport athlete at Berlin High, was struck and killed by a taxicab on the campus of Long Island University. Instead of allowing despair to claim their lives, Dan, Theresa and Ryan’s sister Amanda have dedicated themselves to honoring his memory through the Ryan T. Lee Foundation, which lends financial assistance to people in need.
“When you lose somebody close to you, regardless of the circumstances, you go through grieving, and we continue to do that,” Dan Lee says. “We started the Foundation a couple of months afterwards to keep his memory alive.”
Inspiration. How many kids have been inspired by the three soccer coaches honored at the dinner?
Gold Key winner John Blomstrann of E.O. Smith-Storrs has a record of 481-101-34 after 33 years coaching the boys team. True to his profession and his demeanor, he wanted to talk only about the dedication of his players and family.
Northwest Catholic girls coach Todd Sadler is 94-16-4 after winning two straight Class M titles and sending a pair of All-Americans on to college. At Suffield High, boys coach Mark Beigle is 137-44-25 after 10 years. They were honored as Doc McInerney High School Coaches of the Year.
Jim Tommins dished out another heaping helping of inspiration when he reported to toastmaster John Holt to accept a Good Sport Award in the name of Sticks for Soldiers, a scholastic charity lacrosse tournament in Fairfield County. Bringing love to wounded soldiers, he says, is to thank them for serving our country and to create awareness among high school students about the sacrifices that are being made.
Also receiving Gold Keys were: University of Connecticut field hockey coach Nancy Stevens; former New Haven College basketball star and still the leading scorer in New England college history, Gary Liberatore; Staples-Westport track and field coach John “Laddie” Lawrence.
Jonathan Quick, goalie for the Stanley Cup-winning Los Angeles Kings and a native of Hamden, was honored in absentia. So, too, was Tina Charles, the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player for the Connecticut Sun and ex-UConn star.
Arkeel Newsome of the Ansonia High football team and three-sport prodigy Casey Pearsall of Wilton High were awarded the Hal Levy High School Athlete of the Year Award. Levy, who died in 2008 after a career dedicated to the scholastic athletes, was represented at the dinner by his sister Charlotte Levy-Harrison.
Robert Ehalt won the Arthur McGinley Award, emblematic of work done within the sports writing field and for the CSWA. Tom DiMaggio earned Good Sport accolades for his dedication to auto racing in Waterford. Bill Pucci was similarly honored for his sports-related commitments in the Naugatuck Valley, as was Bob Fontaine, a Bethel High teacher and supporter of running and track at the local, state, regional and national level.
