Longtime Tahoma football coach Tony Davis retires
Every Tuesday during football seasons, Tahoma coach Tony Davis held ‘BAM’ presentations — an acronym that stands for ‘Becoming A Man,’ later tweaked to ‘Becoming A Mature’ when some girls joined the program — for his team.
The intent was to teach life lessons. Davis’ wife, Sherrie, would come in and talk during homecoming week about how to treat their dates with respect. Or maybe Davis would bring in a manager from a local business to talk about what employers look for in potential hires. Things that had nothing to do with football, but would help the players in life.
That’s what Davis will miss the most about coaching: the character building. He announced this week that he’s retiring from coaching, after leading the Tahoma High School football team for 28 seasons. He started coaching the team in 1994.
“I hope they walk away with a set of skills,” said Davis, when asked what he hopes his players took away from the program over the years. “If all you walked away with was the ability to run Cover-3 or a specific pass concept, then we’ve failed them. It’s about the set of skills that will make you successful and help you handle adversity. Not if it comes, but when it comes.”
Davis said he’s been touched by the outpouring of messages and calls from former players and coaches in the wake of his announcement.
“It’s pretty special,” Davis said. “It’s not unique to me, it’s what this sport does. Football specifically, there’s just lessons about work, consistency, accountability, trust. That’s really kind of cool when you get messages that those things have stayed with players. How they feel like it has helped define who they are as adults, parents, employees and bosses. It’s humbling and it’s very special.”
Davis, 59, will remain on board as the school’s athletic director and associate principal. The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on everyone, Davis included.
“Covid has kind of changed the day job,” he said. “It’s always been a challenging balancing time between the administrative job, the (athletic director) position and then coaching. Coaching is a year-round thing. So it’s an accumulation of things. I’m just kind of worn out, to be honest.”
Davis said he’d rather leave his coaching job a year too early than a year too late.
“I didn’t want to be that guy on the field wishing they weren’t out there,” he said.
He still feels called to the work the school district is doing, particularly in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion issues.
“I think that’s important work,” he said. “The importance of valuing every student and every adult, for that matter. We’re in a district that’s not as diverse as some of our neighbors. Being a little different is a struggle, at times. We’re really working hard to create that sense of belonging and respect for other cultures, valuing other differences. That’s important work to me.”
Davis led the Bears to four state tournament appearances during his career. Tahoma’s best finish came in 2000, when Tahoma lost to Kamiak in the quarterfinal round.
