During his senior season, September 1995, everything changed for Erik Becker. His football team became something much more, his teammates more than teammates, his coach more than a coach.
“After a game, my Dad died unexpectedly,” Becker remembered. “And Coach (Steve) Filippone brought me home and kind of broke the news to me. At that moment, our program became more important to me than the air I was breathing. It was my shelter, my insulation from life, my safe space, that locker room kept me alive. Hand football is my family. For me it is one of the most sacred and special things in this world.”
Becker later became part of Filippone’s staff, volunteer assistant, freshman coach, then left for a few years to get some head coaching experience, and in 2021 returned home to Daniel Hand High in Madison, a school and a town where football championships have for so long been a requirement, as much as an achievement. Becker won his first in 2023. On Saturday, he led the current Tigers to New Britain to play Killingly, the No. 2 ranked team in the state polls, defending state champs with a 25-game winning streak.
When it was over, Becker had his second championship, Daniel Hand’s 15th, scoring 27 unanswered points to win, 37-13. Larry Ciotti, the program’s architect, or Godfather, if you will, and Filippone, joined Becker on the field for the emotional celebration aftermath, a living timeline of a high school football dynasty.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” Becker said. “My work is to keep the flame burning that Larry Ciotti lit 55 years ago. The culture he established on day one in 1970 of toughness, physicality, discipline, relentless effort, that’s my work, to uphold his culture. The step further is to carry forth the legacy of my football coach, Steve Filippone, he has been my father figure since my Dad died when I was 17, he has been the most important man in my life.”
Hand has had only four football coaches, Ciotti, who won four championships, Filippone, who won seven, Dave Mastroianni and Becker. Once football took hold in the Shoreline community, the pipeline of players has consistently fed championship caliber teams.
“Our program is about high, hard goals,” Becker said. “We are so blessed to be in a spot where kids believe, ‘hey, this is possible.’ There are a lot of schools in Connecticut where going 6-4, that’s a great year. So the fact our boys believe that every year, they can be a state champion, is incredible. So we’re trying to be great on purpose.”
Becker played on teams that reached the state finals, but came up short, game he can still recall chapter and verse, as if the disappointment remains fresh. The 2025 Tigers (12-1) were unbeaten except for a 28-27 loss to eventual Class LL runner-up Cheshire. They won the SCC championship, and won quality matchups against playoff teams St. Joseph-Trumbull, Brookfield and Fairfield Prep.
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“We knew it would be a four-quarter fight (against Killingly),” Becker said. “We’ve been in a bunch of four-quarter fights and it prepares us for a game like that. … Our mentality is, ‘don’t flinch.’ Our mentality is, ‘next play.’”
Lucca Boyce rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns against Killingly, capping his 1,400-yard season.
“Exceptional athlete,” Becker said. “Probably a top-five athlete I’ve ever been around in, now, 25 years of coaching.”
Tim O’Malley’s 18-yard interception return for a touchdown in the midst of the second-half onslaught was a decisive play, making it 30-13.
“Yes, but against Foran-Milford in 1994 we were up 17 going into the fourth,” Becker said. “And against New Canaan in 2007 we were up by the same score, 30-13, going into the fourth and guess what happened on those days? Our message was, ‘finish, finish.”
Becker has experiences to share and pay forward for his players, some unique to playing football at Daniel Hand, where the lows of losing a playoff game have so often served to fuel the highs of winning the next one, and some lessons unique to him, that only he can share.
“A big piece of that,” Becker said, “is that I always need to be able to look at them and see myself. And I want them to always be able to look at me and see themselves, because some day one of them is going to be in this role.”
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The championship trophy tucked away, the dynasty/legacy secure for another year, Becker and his staff met for some fall-off-the-bone homemade barbeque to celebrate before going to work on title No. 16. It’s more than just a number, more than just hardware for a coach where the football team means so much, past and present, the future in his caring hands. Erik Becker’s job is far more than a job.
“Playing high school football at Hand for Steve Filippone was a transformative experience for me,” Becker said. “It was a life-changing experience. If I can provide that for my boys, then I am doing good work. Being with those two men yesterday, it was one of those lifetime, special moments. Coach Fil, I hugged him I just cried, so much came out, and I’m not a crier. The emotional depth he has is just profound, there is no one like him. To be able to do work that honors those two men and the program they built, it just means everything to me. … I have a daughter, who is the most important thing in my life, and I have 50 sons. I always pray to be the coach my team needs, the coach my boys need.”