Work.
The retired coach, teacher and administrator, who led De Soto’s boys basketball teams to 536 victories in 29 years as head coach, got trapped in a double-team after he officially retired from education in 2012.
Facing restlessness on one side and boredom on the other, he returned to the court in 2013 as an assistant coach at Grandview High, also serving as a part-time administrator in the Grandview R-2 district.
Now Davis, 63, has taken his “unretirement” to another level as the boys basketball head coach at Central High in Park Hills. He has guided the Rebels to a 12-3 record in his first season, including a recent triumph over a regional rival.
“Last year Sikeston beat us 93-31; this year we beat them 87-66,” Davis said Friday just before his team routed Potosi in front of an appreciative home crowd. “That was a big win.”
It’s not as though Davis, inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2011, had a lot of time on his hands. He’s still working part-time at Grandview as special-projects director, overseeing a long list of capital improvement projects. They are funded by a $2.75 million bond issue approved by the district’s voters last year.
He also maintains two large cattle ranches on the outskirts of De Soto, where he breeds cattle on about 650 acres, divided between him and his 85-year-old father Lloyd.
“We (were recognized as) Farm Family of the Year last year (by the) Jefferson County Farm Bureau, for our county,” Davis said. “It was just in the Leader.”
While his wife, Julie, retired from the Grandview district four years ago, he’s stayed on to serve as a kind of administrative Swiss Army knife – first as an assistant principal, then principal, then directorships of curriculum, academics, and now special projects.
“I just do whatever they ask me to do,” he said. “I was out for a year or so (after retirement) and then I went there to help out one of my ex-players, Matt Zoph, who is the superintendent there. They asked me to come out there and help. I just found a home. I’ll stay there as long as they want me.”
Davis is overseeing construction that began recently to add 7,200 square feet to the high school, with E.A. Boyer Building & Design as the contractor. He said he’s getting ready to put out a bid request for major electrical upgrades at Grandview Elementary.
“When bond issues pass you have three years to use that money for different projects,” Davis said. “We started out with a bunch of projects, about 33 on the list and narrowed it down to 11, and now it’s probably going to go down to seven. The money goes quick.”
‘My clock is wound up’
A confluence of circumstances steered Davis into the coaching job at Park Hills. He had stepped down from assisting with Grandview’s boys team and found himself home at nights a lot. The old boredom factor closed in again.
“I knew every TV show from 5 to 10 (o’clock), every channel, in the wintertime,” he said. “That’s what people do at the old folks’ home.”
Then came the restlessness, from long-flowing coaching adrenaline that lacked an outlet.
“(Julie) could tell I was just nervous,” he said. “I was anxious always sitting there, critiquing every coach on TV.”
Meanwhile, the state teachers’ retirement system relaxed the rules somewhat on where and how much retirees could keep working. He found out he could coach at another school and not have it count against the annual 550-hour limit he has to observe at Grandview.
“I thought about that, and it wasn’t two days later Chad Bradley (Park Hills Central athletic director) called and said, ‘Hey coach, you want a job?’”
That was last April. Now Davis is back in his element, molding young men into winners.
“I’ve got the bug again; it’s hard to turn off, win or lose,” he said. “We’re winning, so that makes it easier. I just like kids, no matter where they’re at, what color the uniform is, it doesn’t matter to me. I just like to be around them and they seem to respond to me.
“My clock is wound up and I can’t unwind it. My wife finds it hard to believe me. The other day we played a game and on the way home, like 9:15, I’m already texting the contractors on our next project. My mind’s on something else already. She’s like, ‘I can’t believe you.’”
Topping the list
Bradley, for his part, couldn’t believe his good fortune. He’s in his 20th year as the AD at Central and knew Davis well from De Soto’s many long runs in Central’s Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Classic, one of the oldest holiday tournaments in Missouri.
“I put my wish list together and of course Coach Davis was at the top of it,” Bradley said. “I didn’t know what level of interest he would have or if it was even anything he would consider. But the first phone call I made to him, he had some interest and we talked for probably 20 or 30 minutes and had a great conversation.
“I thought we needed somebody who was kind of old school and Coach Davis is old school,” Bradley added. “Plus, the fact that we just didn’t have a teaching position to go along with (the coaching job). He fit that mold.
“We love having him here. The kids really have bought into him. He’s doing a great job of building a program from our junior high all the way through our high school.”
The Rebels’ top player, senior Breven McMullen, said his new coach already has lifted the team to a higher level.
“He really knows how to get the best out of all of us,” McMullen said. “It’s hard to compare Coach Davis to any other coach I’ve ever had; he’s just a different breed of coach. I’ve probably learned more in this last year than I have at any other point in my time playing basketball.
“Leadership has been a big thing with him, talking on the floor. He’s really tried to push me out of my comfort zone as far as that aspect.”
Davis said his Rebel squad reminds him of his De Soto teams, who collectively won 19 conference titles, 11 district championships and went to the state final four twice (1993 and 2003).
“They remind me (of them) all the time. You plant the seed in some kids and they just take it. Kids want discipline. Kids want instruction. They may act like they don’t, but they do. I knew it would take a couple of months for them to buy in, and now they’re just up and down (the court), like I like it; they play hard.
“All kids want to please you; you’ve just got to find a way to motivate them.”
Not ready to (really) retire
Not many people his age have the energy to rise at 6 o’clock in the morning, take care of 60 or 70 “mama cows” and their calves, then head to school to supervise architects and builders, or just fill in for other administrators – and then commute 45 minutes to run basketball practice or get a team ready for a game.
And that’s not even factoring in family time, with a grown son and daughter who both work in medical careers and have produced two young grandchildren so far.
For Davis, it beats the easy chair.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever retire,” he said. “Look at my dad, he’s 85 and he’s out every day. He can’t stop.
“Everywhere I’ve been, I’m blessed. God looks over me. For him to think about taking care of me is ridiculous, because I make a lot of mistakes. Everything, from my family, to my farms, to basketball, I couldn’t ask for better. I’m pretty lucky.”