News & Media

Meet Paul Cavaliere, Jr., the new Assistant Director for Unified Sports® for Special Olympics Connecticut and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). Paul brings 47 years of experience in education and is happy to be taking on this new position!

Paul started out as a public school teacher and then became principal of Middle School of Plainville in 1980. He served as principal of Sage Park Middle School in Windsor from 1999 to 2018. Paul was Principal of the Year in 2002 and Sage Park was State Middle School of the Year for 2013-2014. At Sage Park, he started a Special Olympics Unified Sports® program that expanded to be offered for three seasons at the high school. He was always very involved in the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) as a middle-level principal, serving as President of the Middle-Level Board for ten years and starting the Leadership Academy. Paul retired from being a principal in 2018 and went on to serve in multiple positions in the state as an interim administrator from 2019 to 2025. 

Although Paul has only held this position for a short time, he has been a part of Special Olympics Connecticut all of his life. He finds it most rewarding to work as a partner or administrator. “The participants are always very happy and they appreciate the help and support you give them,” states Paul. He feels very rewarded that he is able to make others happy and comfortable and make connections with schools in Hartford, where there are no Unified teams yet. He has set up an appointment with Milner Middle School about how to get a team together alongside a Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) magnet school. One of the areas that he wants to expand on with SOCT is to increase the reach to more cities and urban locations in Connecticut.

Paul’s favorite memory of Unified Sports is being very pleased that his district was able to get the program off the ground. As he attended the events and saw the smiles on the athletes’ faces, he reflected on how that had never occurred before. They started with basketball since Windsor is a big basketball town. One middle school team was a natural fit, so it became a very popular sport with the Unified team.  

Paul’s hobby outside of Special Olympics is being part of a few service organizations in his town, the biggest being the Lions Club in Berlin. The Berlin Lions Club just finished a fair, which had 43,900 people in attendance! Right now, he is Second Vice President of the operation with 175 members. He is also Chairman of the Boys and Girls Club Committee, which donates $21,000 back to organizations that help fund their existing programs or start new ones. Some donations include $1000 a year to the town library and $1000 to each school to create new programs that aren’t funded by the board of education. The Lions also donate $4000 to the town’s Social Services to support families in need. 

The Berlin Lions have a Unified program called VIP Fishing, where athletes team up with partners and parents for a fishing derby. Paul is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, a longtime sponsor of Special Olympics, and is chairman of their scholarship program.  

Paul says that his first few weeks with SOCT have been the most rewarding part of his career. “It has been super rewarding and very enjoyable to come to work and help do something positive for Special Olympics in the state,” says Paul. 

We look forward to seeing all that Paul will accomplish as he continues to work with our amazing organization!