By now, the miraculous — that moment when spirituality met sports — has become our nation's latest and most positive cause celebre. Seven years to the day Newtown and the nation mourned the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, Newtown and the nation celebrated the state football championship from this past weekend on the last play of the last game.

Put it this way: Peggy Noonan had it right when she wrote, "I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see."

How fascinating, indeed, that this small town in our midst has unwittingly become a national emissary for tragedy and triumph. Oh, the stories its residents can share. Some have in recent days.

There is no denying that the football team's triumph has added another layer to the town's allegory. But the stories Newtown folks have carried with them since 2012 were no less poignant before the outcome of Saturday's game. And sadly, had the football team not won, we would not have heard them.

Before Saturday's game, state media members were issued the following missive:

"The CIAC greatly appreciates the thorough media coverage of the 2019 football championships. In the interest of ensuring that the student-athlete's accomplishments remain the focus of media coverage going forward, CIAC is supporting and sharing the request of the Newtown High School administration that all media refrain from posing questions to the Newtown players, coaches, parents, students and fans that pertain to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. Referencing the anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting will undoubtedly put unwanted stress on the players, school and community.

"The CIAC and the Newtown High School administration thank the media in advance for its cooperation and commitment to honoring this request in the best interest of Newtown's student-athletes. Focusing coverage on what transpires on the football field will contribute to the positive influence that sport participation has on building community connectedness."

I understand that hearts of CIAC and Newtown officials were in the right place. But their minds were not. I get that wanting to protect our children is noble. But I ask:

Protect them from what?

History?

Newtown is part of history. Dark history. But history nonetheless. And shielding kids and families with stories to tell about one of the darkest days in American history hardly serves the educational purpose for which school systems exist.

Not all history is pleasant. It's why, for example, there's a Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It's why, to this day, we pick the brains and minds of Holocaust victims and other victims of tragedy. Of survivors. Of those who have endured and prevailed. It helps us, inspires us and educates us. There's a reason George Santayana said that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. How do we learn from history if the people who experienced it are muted?

To wit: Were it not for the greatest single play in Connecticut high school sports history, we would be poorer as a society.

Jeff Jacobs, my friend who is the columnist at Hearst Connecticut Media, wrote a magnificent piece Tuesday on Newtown quarterback Jack Street and his family. Street was a fourth-grader at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 12, 2012. Jeff told the Sandy Hook story through the eyes of the survivor. It was riveting. Here is the link. It is a must read: https://www.gametimect.com/jeff-jacobs-for-one-unbelievable-moment-the-fog-lifts-for-street-family-newtown/

Once again: The Street Family's story was no less real in the days before the game. It's just that we couldn't tell it until a miracle happened. We all loved the miracle. But we also must see how the original premise of CIAC and the Newtown school system — shield the kids from history because it's unpleasant — does not help foster the inner strength kids need to succeed.

I get that questions about Sandy Hook could have been incessant. But when the starting quarterback was in the school at the time of the shootings — and another starter lost a sibling in the shootings — they become dramatis personae whose experiences, recollections and subsequent wisdom can educate us all.

I'm thinking that our framers would have frowned on being told what members of a free press can and can't ask. The way it works it this: I ask. And then the other party gets to choose whether to answer. If the party doesn't want to answer, we move on. Kind of simple.

We need to learn from this. Let's stop trying to protect our kids from current events. From history. They have stories to tell. If they so choose.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro