Mohegan — There is sanctity tied to sports and their tentacles. Sometimes, sports are the demilitarized zone for conversation, the safe place that discovers areas of agreement. Sometimes, they're the vehicle for participants to feel a place of trust, belonging and stability that are perhaps harder to experience in everyday existence.

Sports were never better for us than this past weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena, where more than 17,000 fans watched the state high school basketball championships. And there were many surface level memories, sure. Trophies hoisted with hugs and high fives for the victors, singing along to "We Are The Champions."

But sports at their essence — as this all-purpose inclusionary instrument — happened at halftime of all 10 championship games. Crowds in Neon Uncasville watched 10, 10-minute Unified basketball games — with referees and all — whose popularity grew with each rendition.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference hasn't a nobler undertaking. Unified basketball halftimes hit every note, not to mention every heartstring, fortifying the belief that while society in general appears to be swirling the bowl, well, things like this show us that we ain't dead yet.

Oh, to have heard the Newington student section cheering on the Newington Unified team — all the great student section chants and all — especially for the one kid burying three-pointers. Same for the Bristol Central kids rooting on their Unified team. Oh, to have seen the Unified athletes soaking in the arena's expanse with the same looks of hope and wonder as the athletes playing in the championship games.

"We started this about seven or eight years ago," said Bob Hale, the CIAC's Unified Sports director. "We started small with one or two games over the weekend. It became so popular. Teams are clamoring to play here. CIAC has been great about accommodating us and partnering full bore with Special Olympics. A great marriage."

Indeed. The Unified athletes and their coaches get the same royal treatment as everybody else. Their buses enter through the arena's special passageway. They get to watch the games courtside. And then at halftime, they played to actual noise in the arena and not polite golf claps.

Sometimes, small moments can last lifetimes.

"The overall goal is inclusion," Hale said. "One way to get there is through sports. When the kids get included in their sports program — like playing at halftime of the state championship game and their whole student section is cheering for them — they have a reason to connect in the hallway the next day."

Bob Hale paused for a second. And then began speaking for many of us.

"A lot of kids don't know what to say to someone with disabilities," Hale said. "Just like adults. We don't know what to say. So now they can say, 'hey, great game last night.' Now that's an entrée they always wanted to have. Nobody wants to exclude anyone, but a lot of people are just uncomfortable in the initiation. I still encounter it myself. We're all frail people."

Four schools — Bloomfield, Granby, Newington, Bristol Central — had Unified teams play at halftime of their school's championship games. Waterford, whose Unified team once played at halftime of the Lancers' 2019 title game — got the feature game Saturday night at halftime of the No. 1 Bristol Central/No. 2 Northwest Catholic game.

Full disclosure: I had a Hallmark moment when my new pal Peter Hynek, a Waterford student I met during the season, made a driving layup. Peter was introduced to me as the kid in charge of timeout music at The X as well as one of the kids in charge of washing uniforms. That's my guy.

The look on his face (and mine) when he made a basket ... indescribable joy.

This is our Tradition Like No Other here in Connecticut. The championship games at Mohegan Sun are an upper deck grand slam on their face. But who knew halftime could make Nonna's Lasagna taste even better?

"Simsbury has a team going to the Special Olympics USA Games in Florida playing against high school unified teams from other states," Hale said. "Oxford's team sent a leadership group to Abu Dhabi for the World Games. We may be sending a high school team to Germany in a couple of years when the World Games are there. But those are pinnacle experiences. The most important thing to me is that everyday inclusion for the kids in school is enhanced."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro