Connecticut Sports Management Group

Jan Brown was awarded the 2012 CT Masters Games Athlete of the Year award at the age of 63.  We learned then that Janice started her athletic career at a young age competing as cheerleader, gymnast and swimmer.  She began running at the age of 38 and competed in over 5 marathons and 10 half-marathons between the ages of 50 to 60. She recognized the growing need for full court basketball for the 40+ players, so she began a drop-in program on Sunday mornings in her hometown of Newtown, CT.  Jan started playing in local women’s softball leagues in 1999 and in 2003, she participated in her first CT Masters’ Games softball tournament. She joined a 50+ women’s softball league in town when she became eligible and promptly became the women’s basketball and softball sport coordinator for the CT Masters’ Games. She was a decade into fulfilling this role when she received her first Athlete of the Year award.
   Meanwhile, in 2010 Jan saw an article in a local publication about Janice Pauly who had introduced the sport of pickleball to Ridgefield CT. Janice Pauly, who runs the Nutmeg, Masters’ and Fall Classic event for CSMG, taught Jan how to play the game. “I became addicted as do most people” Jan said, in an interview with Andy Hutchinson of the Newtown Bee. She added pickleball to her permanent repertoire of sports and became a local ambassador – a prestigious title earned from the United States Pickleball Association.
   Jan has continued to achieve bronze, silver and gold medal status around the country in sprint triathlons, 3 vs. 3 basketball, Women’s softball, racquetball and pickleball in National events and has competed more than once in the Huntsman World Senior Games. The number of Gold and Silver medals Janice has earned since 2012 has increased exponentially in each of the sports she’s involved in. In 2024 both her 60+ softball team, CT Thunder, and her 70+ CT Sisters basketball team took the Gold at their respective tournaments and qualified, once again, for the 2025 National Senior Games.
   A common thread among our female senior athletes is women’s team sport offerings were limited or non-existent when they were growing up. Whether it’s making up for lost time or pure love of sports and competition – or maybe a little of both – Jan has motivated many hundreds of people to get started with sports regardless of their age. She joins the 95% of Masters’ athletes that agree the camaraderie is equally, if not more, important than the win.
The drop-in basketball program she started 25 years ago is still going as strong now as it was then – only now it draws athletes from all over Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. She tirelessly recruits female softball players “who thought their playing days were over – due to aging – or simply didn’t know there is a state and national program for not only softball but many sports”. The strides made in growing the pickleball community in Newtown are unprecedented. Jan created a drop-in pickleball at the Town Hall at Edmond Town Hall and Sandy Hook School, and offered free lessons at Newtown Parks and Recreation.  She, along with Ed Miklaszewski, advocated and fundraised for repairs to the Fairfield Hills Courts. She helped in the formation of the Newtown Pickleball Club and is part of the Recreation Department’s Masters program that encourages athletic participation and helps residents get involved and prepare for the Masters’ Games. And it doesn’t stop there either.
   Jan has played: horseshoes, darts, archery, badminton, archery, bocce, corn hole and even tried her hand at curling. She’s played with some of her children and grandchildren in coed softball in Danbury and Bethel for over 20 years and coed dodgeball for 10 years. Not to mention keeping up with her fitness training twice a week.
   In addition to being actively involved in countless sports, Jan has consistently encouraged hundreds of people of all ages to participate regardless of their age. She has developed friendships through the common bond of athletics with people across the nation.
   For her continued efforts to promote healthy and active lifestyle through physical fitness and sport for the last 25 years and her embodiment of the Olympic spirit, we are proud to acknowledge Janice Goulart-Brown as the 2024 Connecticut Masters’ Games Athlete of the year!
A compilation of CT Masters’ Games documentation and Newtown Bee articles by Andy Hutchison