The Daniel Hand and Cheshire football teams came together at halftime on October 9, 2026, to honor Mike Ciotti, Cheshire’s assistant coach, for his ongoing battle with Stage 4 Acinic Cell Carcinoma. Fans and players from both sides wore gray T-shirts emblazoned with Ciotti’s name and the phrase “Eat the Bear,” uniting the Southern Connecticut Conference rivals around something beyond the scoreboard.
The ceremony took place at the Surf Club in Madison, where Ciotti has deep roots as a player and coach. Hand athletic director Chris Farrell opened the halftime event by telling the crowd, “We want to take a few minutes for something bigger than football.” Ciotti, a Madison native and father of four, has faced an intensified fight this year after a successful brain tumor surgery and ongoing chemotherapy and integrative oncology treatments.
Both teams, along with their coaches and athletic directors, stood with Ciotti and his family on the field. Cheshire’s athletic director John Perosino praised Ciotti’s influence, saying, “Mike, tonight I hope you and your family can look around the stadium and see just how many lives you have touched and how many people you have inspired.” Perosino added that Ciotti’s role as a teacher extended beyond the classroom, emphasizing the lessons he imparts to players about resilience.
Ciotti echoed that message during the ceremony. “I hope I can be a mentor, a role model for the guys that I coach, show them that we’re all going to face adversity at some point in our lives,” he said. “And you’ve got two choices in this world. You can either eat the bear or the bear will eat you, and the mantra that I’ve adopted, my family has adopted, is we will always eat the bear. We will never stop fighting until we can’t fight anymore.”
As the teams formed a huddle and shouted “Eat the Bear” together, Ciotti, whose Cheshire Rams trailed 17-0 at the time, acknowledged that the challenge was now theirs. “The Cheshire Rams certainly are facing some adversity right now, and we must go into the locker room and figure a way to come out and get ready to eat the bear,” he said.
The tribute followed a close game last year when Cheshire edged Hand by one point in overtime. That contest had already established a connection between Ciotti and Hand players after Cheshire’s victory. This year, Farrell seized the moment to unite both schools in support of Ciotti’s fight.
Ciotti has a long connection to football in the area. He played for Hand in the 1980s, won a state championship as a player there, and went on to Yale, where he earned an Ivy League title. After a stint coaching youth football in Madison and serving as a Hand assistant, he moved to Cheshire in 2019 as the offensive line coach.
Despite Cheshire’s 38-0 loss on Friday, Ciotti remained engaged and energized. Speaking from the press box later in the game, he said, “Just being here makes me feel alive. It makes me feel alive yelling and screaming or stomping my feet, pounding my fist on the table. It makes me feel great.”
Ciotti’s presence on the sideline and the outpouring of support from two rival communities underscored the respect he commands. “Football has created a rivalry between Cheshire and Daniel Hand, but some things are bigger than the scoreboard right now,” Farrell told the crowd. “We stand together, not as opponents, but as one team. We wanted to make sure Mike understands that we love him. We are here with him, and we’ll continue to stand with him and his family every step of the way.”
According to Yahoo Sports.
