McKenna still enjoying ride as AD at Torrington High

Mike McKenna has entered his sixth year as athletic director at Torrington High School and the busyness of it and the responsibility of it still suits him. He’s continuing a McKenna tradition with the school begun by his late father. Dr. James McKenna was the physician for the school’s athletic teams for many decades.

Dr. McKenna was always there at the athletic contests and frequently called upon to tend expertly to one injury or another, particularly during football season. Games would not have been the same without him and he was considered a part of the scene both by athletes and parents.

“He was very well liked,” said Mike, but the AD also remembered the good doctor as a demanding, albeit beloved, father.

Mike McKenna succeeded phys-ed teacher Janet Giampaolo, who had served as AD for two years.

High school sports are more fun than anything, and they teach better and longer-lasting lessons than sports at any other level. Oh, I know. There are stories of cheating by one means or another at every high school. I recall one such in which, many years ago, a coach visited the parents of a star senior athlete and convinced them to allow the kid to flunk a subject he could easily have passed, so that his graduation would be delayed a year. By doing that, the coach would have the services of the young ace on his team for another year. I don’t know if the deal was made, but the point is, the attempt was made.

An athletic director has to be vigilant and aware of things like that. Besides all the other things he/she has to do — scheduling, hiring and firing coaches, monitoring the maintenance of fields and gyms, endless personal problems involving coaches and players, attending scores of sports events, etc. — he has to know about any potential hanky panky.

It is no job for a person who likes to move at a leisurely pace.

With four brothers and three sisters, McKenna’s life has always been immersed in sports. He graduated in 1973 from THS, where he had played football (for Ezio Benetti and then Bob Frost) and other sports. From there he entered Wilmington College in Ohio, emerging with a degree that allowed him to become an athletic trainer. He met wife Teresa, who became a physical therapist, there.

When the couple returned to Torrington, the three McKennas, Mike,

Teresa and Dr. Jim, went into business.

“Dad saw clients in our clinic and Teresa and I worked — physical therapy and exercise — with other clients. We had that business from 1982 to 2000.” Mike and Teresa reared three kids, two girls and a boy.

When we spoke on the phone Monday, he had the news that he had just hired a girls volleyball coach named Pam DeBerry.

“She’s an attorney from out of state and lives in Derby,” Mike said. “She works in the public defender’s office at the new courthouse.”

He spoke with fond memory of the coaches who guided him over 50 years ago at THS, chiefly Connie Donahue and Lou Moscaritolo, and said, chuckling, “They didn’t have to worry about girls sports. There were none.’’

McKenna enjoys good relationships with Torrington’s coaches, which is one of the reasons he enjoys his job.

“I like to think young people get plenty out of high school sports,” he said. “And I feel there are benefits when their sports careers are done. Some of them become coaches. I’ve always thought that’s a good way to give back.”