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TOLLAND — A broken collarbone ended Alex Backus' season with the Tolland football team in 2008. Little did he know then it would in a way the beginning of what's become a big part of his life.
"My junior year I broke my collarbone and lost my spot, essentially," Backus said. "The player that backed me up was in his first year at the position so I had a chance to teach him. I thought that I had a natural knack for teaching the game and my coaches told me that. They said, 'Look, you're good at this. Maybe you should pursue it.' That's how I started."
Backus became a volunteer coach at Stafford two months after graduating from Tolland in 2010 and — except for a break when he went back to school to work towards his doctorate in physical therapy, which he achieved in 2021 — has been coaching since.
He begins his second tenure as Tolland's head coach on Thursday when the Eagles play host to Plainville.
"We've got a good group of kids," Backus said. "We're fortunate. We had a small senior class last year and we were young with a lot of starting sophomores and juniors who will hopefully make that leap to the next level."
Backus replaces Mitch Egazarian, who resigned after three seasons. The Eagles were 4-6 a year ago and 11-9 in Egazarian's tenure that included the COVID-19 canceled 2020 season.
He started coaching as a volunteer assistant at Stafford when he was 18, serving three seasons under Corey Bernier and one year under Paul Schumtz. He returned to Tolland as an assistant to Pat Cox in 2014 and was named the Eagles' head coach in 2016, compiling a 9-11 record in two seasons. He stepped down but remained on new coach Scott Cady's staff in 2018 and 2019 before taking time off to attend graduate school and returned as an assistant a year ago.
"Compared to my first time as a head coach, there's certainly been a learning curve," Backus said. "When I was hired the first time I was only about 24. I've had a lot of years as a head coach or an assistant coach since. I was part of different staffs and was able to take parts of all of them. I think I've learned and I'm going to try and not make the same mistakes twice.
"The game hasn't changed much. But having a few years and seeing how other staffs work were beneficial to me. My first year I tried to have my hands in everything and this year I have a larger staff that's comprised of former players of mine or guys I've played with or coached with. So we have that trust. They know my system so I'm ecstatic to have this opportunity."
Tolland returns seven starters on offense: junior quarterback Ryan Caminiti, receivers AJ Cady, a senior, and junior Matt Tybor, and four offensive linemen. But the Eagles must replace running backs Blake Alexander and Evan Wilson and center Antonio Rhodes.
Junior linebacker Ben Gordon (50 tackles, three interceptions) is the top returnee for a defense that returns seven starters but must replace graduated linebacker Connor Graham, who has moved on to Plymouth State.
"I've been playing with a lot of these guys since I was eight or nine years old," Gordon said. "We're tight, we're close knit and we want to win a lot of games and have fun."
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Tolland made four state playoff appearances in a 10-season stretch (1998-99 under coach Joe Bacewicz, 2006-07 under Cox) but hasn't played a postseason game since losing in the Class SS final to Seymour in Backus' sophomore year.
Two years ago, the Eagles won their last four games to go 7-3 but were eliminated from Class S consideration on Thanksgiving Eve and finished 11th in the rankings (top eight qualified).
"We want to make a run at the playoffs, but that's what everyone wants," Tybor said. "Last year we had a very young team. Now we're all juniors and seniors and we've improved on both sides of the ball. We have high expectations for ourselves and we feel them. It will come down to who wants to put in the work and who doesn't.
"Coach Backus is a good leader and he gets us in a straight line. Some of us would get down but he gets us right back up and working. If you slack off, he's on you. If you mess up, he lets you know."
Tolland will play three teams — East Catholic, Hartford Public, and Bloomfield — that reached the 2022 playoffs.
Six of the Class SS playoff teams from 2022 remain in the division including reigning champion Joel Barlow. New Fairfield, a Class S qualifier last year, has moved up to Class SS. It took at least an 8-2 record to get into the 2022 Class SS playoffs and Backus believes that might not change.
"In this division if you can't get to seven or eight wins you're probably not looking at a chance to make the playoffs," Backus said. "We're hoping to make a push. We've been a team that has been a five, six-win team looking to get over the hump to be an eight, nine-win team. Then you can establish yourself. You have success, you get some more athletes out. It's not just about this year, it's about the program moving forward."
The Eagles are buying in.
"I'd love to make the playoffs," Cady said. "But I also want this team to create a bond, not only for this year but for the future so that we become a team, a program, that continues to grow."
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Backus' had a master's in phsyical therapy degree. It has been updated to say he earned his doctorate in physical therapy in 2021.