Jeff Becker, son of Clem and Mary Becker, was born and raised on a dairy farm near St. Michael, Minnesota, along with six sisters and three brothers. His sisters were all cheerleaders, and his brothers were wrestlers. Steve and Greg set the tone, and Jeff took things to the next level, finishing 3rd at State as a Junior and following up with an undefeated Senior season, winning the second ever State Title for St.Michael-Albertville and first for coach Gregg Greeno. Younger brother Brian followed Jeff’s lead with a 3rd, 2nd and 1st place finish at State for STMA.

Jeff planned on staying home and working on the farm, but a two-hour call from Augustana wrestling coach Paul Kendall in late August convinced Jeff that he still had some competitive fuel in the tank. He headed out to Sioux Falls and met college roommate, wrestling team-mate, and lifelong friend Mark Krier and was a three-time National Qualifier at Augustana, carving out a 102-59-4 record.

Becker graduated with a mathematics education degree and started interviewing for teaching positions when Scot Davis talked him into coming to Owatonna to substitute teaching while serving as an assistant wrestling coach, along with Bob Phillips and later Mark Krier. The Owatonna program was solid, but Davis and his young assistant coaches were able to take the team to the next level. Soon after, Dale Benjamin helped Jeff gain employment at Slidell Packaging Company, and a number of years later, Jeff was hired at Westrock Packaging Company.

When Davis took the head wrestling job at Eden Prairie, Jeff helped coach the Eagles for three years before Scot took another coaching position in Iowa.

Jeff was not able to block out enough time to coach wrestling but was not ready to be done with wrestling quite yet, so he went into officiating and found another whole brotherhood existed in the world of wrestling officials. Jeff joined Gold Country Wrestling Officials and learned his trade quickly, and after his second year of officiating, he made it to the pinnacle, officiating at the Christmas Tournament, the Clash, and the State Wrestling Tournament.