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09/30/2016 12:00 AMMike Davis had a great career as a member of the Hand football team and he went on to play and coach at the collegiate level. This fall, Mike has come back to the town where it all began.
Mike grew up and currently lives in Madison, where he was an All-SCC and All-State player who doubled as a halfback and defensive back for Hand before graduating in 2009. Mike then played for four years at Springfield College and was later a halfbacks coach at the school, after which he coached the wide receivers at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Now, Mike has returned to the Hand Tigers as an assistant coach and is working with both their halfbacks and defensive backs.
“I had always wanted to be a coach. I gave it a shot at the collegiate level and I just didn’t want to keep bouncing around,” says Mike. “I’d been in touch with the Hand coaches over the years and they reached out to me. I also said while I was playing at Hand that I always wanted to come back here and coach.”
Mike keeps it short and sweet when it comes to his coaching principles, although he emphasizes two elements that he feels are crucial for every player to adhere to.
“The most important thing is consistent effort. If you come ready to go every day, it says a lot about the character of someone. I feel that consistent effort during practice correlates to playing from behind, but playing tough in the fourth quarter,” Mike says. “It’s also about focus. You want the players to focus on the little things and get better with every rep.”
Of course, football is a grueling sport and one of the rewards Mike reaps from coaching is seeing just how willing a young athlete is to dive into the trenches of tackling.
“It’s a great feeling to coach, especially with football, because you don’t ask players to do something as hard as hitting someone at full speed [in other sports],” says Mike. “It’s nice to see when they do that consistently and it’s very rewarding to me.”
Mike got some hands-on experience with the Tigers a year ago and that helped him become a natural fit in the school’s sports scene, according to Athletic Director Craig Semple.
“He did an internship with athletics last year and part of it was in coaching. He did a great job. He is a natural with kids and has outstanding skills in developing student-athletes,” says Semple. “We are very fortunate to have him on staff as he brings a tremendous amount of energy and composure to our outstanding veteran staff.”
Hand football has a program that’s been steeped in success for decades and features athletes who are driven to continue that legacy. As a former player and now a coach, Mike knows this all too well and feels that determination will once again prove pivotal to any success the Tigers have in 2016.
“The Hand football tradition is like no other in Connecticut. With what [Head Coach Steve Filippone] has been doing for years, the players know what they have to do. No one wants to be on a bad Hand football team, so that makes them work so hard,” says Mike. “We’ve been working hard leading into the season and we need to clean up some things. We will be physical and, if we execute what we need to do, then we will be fine.”