About Us

About Coach DeFilippo

Coach DeFilippo coached the Derby High School football team from 1968 - 1982. During that time, he compiled a record of 116 wins, 30 losses, and 8 ties for a .779 winning percentage. His teams had 5 undefeated seasons (1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, and 1975), won 2 Connecticut State Championships (1969 and 1973), and were Housatonic League Champions 9 times (1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982).

Big Lou produced 24 "All State" players (including 8 "Players of the Week"), 60 "All Housatonic" players, 94 "All Valley" players, 12 Scholar Athletes, and 1 "Outstanding Player in the State."

His record on the field was quite impressive, but it pales in comparison to his status in the community and in the lives of the young men and women whose lives were touched by this Giant of a man.

Lou & Dolly DeFilippo opened their lives to us and for an all-too-brief period gave us a glimpse into their core values. His son Tom DeFilippo, recently stated, "My father didn't have just two sons...all the kids in Derby were his boys."

We are honored to repay the DeFilippo family by honoring Coach & Dolly with the Lou & Dolly Scholarship Fund. The scholarship will award $1,000 each to a boy and girl graduating from Derby High School. We realize Coach and Dolly's own children and grandchildren sacrificed their time with Lou in order for Coach to teach us. We are grateful.

Finally, people have asked, "What is Lou's Legacy?". Lou and Dolly taught us the right way to go about our business. We learned how to conduct ourselves (both on and off the field). Lou's Legacy are the nearly 300 players who were fortunate enough to have played for him. Lou's Legacy is the family, friends, and rivals who played against him. Lou's Legacy is the children of Derby. Look at the children and see the pride we get when we teach them many of the lessons we learned from Coach. Lou's Legacy is the connection between generations as the old-timers reach out to the new players and future generations. Lou's Legacy is so much more impressive than a winning percentage. Lou's Legacy is our legacy. We embrace it, we celebrate it, and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Derby Football History - The DeFilippo years

In 1968, Bill McAllister moved on to his alma mater (Ansonia) when Carbone became a defensive coach at Southern Connecticut State College and Derby went to the outside and obtained Lou DeFilippo, a former NFL player with the New York Giants.

DeFilippo, who never enjoyed an unbeaten season at Long Meadow High School in Long Island, piloted the Red Raiders to a 9-0 record and another Housatonic League championship.

So what did he do for an encore? Derby's 1969 team, considered by most as the greatest Derby team ever assembled, streaked to its third consecutive undefeated season and was ranked as the Number One team in the State.

As the sixties came to an end, the Raiders were riding the crest of a 34 consecutive games without a defeat (with one tie) before Seymour broke the string in the second game of the season in 1970.

Overall, Derby had won 61 games, lost just 26 and tied five during the decade of the sixties. But the best was yet to come during the seventies and eighties.

The 1970's saw Derby win 76 more games while losing just 20 with seven ending in ties. Five straight Housatonic League football titles (1972-1976) and another State mythical title (1973) had the Red Raiders flying high. DeFilippo had raised the Red Raiders to another level. The only disappointment during the remarkable 1970's was earning a berth in the first-ever CIAC State Football Class S championship game but losing to arch-rival Ansonia.

DeFilippo stayed on until 1982 winning back-to-back Housatonic League titles in 1981 and 1982. He then entrusted the Red Raiders to long time assistant, Charlie DiCenso.

Article written by Bill Pucci and originally printed in the 75th Anniversary Ansonia vs. Derby Commemorative Program Booklet, October 1992.

Testimonials from those who knew Coach

My all-time favorite quote from Coach..."Remember boys, when the going gets tough...the tough stay tough." - Art Gerckens '80.

Attorney Pat Filan, relays the following true story of how his father (the late Dr. Filan), cast the deciding vote during the Board of Education meeting that led to the hiring of a new football coach in 1968.

A little more on the 1968 Board of Ed vote: I was 12 then. My father was 40 and had left Ireland only a little more than 12 years before. He landed in Derby an Irish immigrant struggling to figure out the "Italian psyche." He didn’t know much about American football, never having played it as a kid.

I was sitting with him at the kitchen table the night before the vote. He told me the Board of Education was split and he’d have to cast the deciding vote. There was a lot of support to keep the job “local.” Derby had just experienced defections to Ansonia by Coaches Ron Carbone and Bill McAllister.

He showed me a stack of recommendations he received supporting Lou DeFillippo. I’ll never forget how impressed I was to read letters of reference from Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. Remember 1968 was the height of the Green Bay Packers era. He told me would vote for Lou DeFillippo and I guess the rest is history.

Apart from some very good football teams, I think Coach DeFillippo was instrumental in getting kids into Ivy League and other good colleges. That's a very enduring legacy as well.

Quarterback Mike Wityak was having a poor day passing the football in practice which led to the following classic Coach quote: "Wityak, you couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a handful of rice."

Ben Blue threw a lousy block in practice which resulted in another Coach classic: "For Christ sakes Ben, you're big enough to eat hay."

In the first game of the year against Branford, Alex Fabiano broke through the line and scampered 88 yards for an electrifying touchdown. At about the twenty yard line he gave the number one sign to the crowd as he waltzed the final 5 yards into the endzone, spun the ball around his back and had teammate John Snow lift him in the air. We watched that sequence at least a dozen times in slow motion the following week. Coach was disgusted. He said, "Fabiano, you're the hot dog and Snow you're the mustard."