Current position | |
---|---|
Title | Head coach |
Team | Lamar |
Conference | Southland |
Record | 215–189 |
Biographical details | |
Born | Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. | May 29, 1984
Playing career | |
2004–2007 | LSU |
Position(s) | Catcher |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
2009–2015 | LSU (asst.) |
2016 | Lamar (asst.) |
2017–present | Lamar |
Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
2008 | LSU (BO) |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 215–189 |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
Southland regular season (2024) | |
Awards | |
Southland Coach of the Year (2024) | |
William Randall Davis Jr. (born May 29, 1984) is an American college baseball coach and former catcher. Davis is the head coach of the Lamar Cardinals baseball team. Davis is the son of former college baseball coach Randy Davis who was an assistant coach at UL-Monroe, LSU, and South Carolina and the head coach at Louisiana Tech. The elder Davis died in February 2022. Will Davis is married to the former Danielle Hall of Bogalusa, Louisiana. She is a former cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints. The couple have three children Everly (2016), Coco (2020), and Crash (2022).
Davis attended Robert E. Lee High School (now Liberty Magnet High School) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. [1] Davis played for the school's varsity baseball team. Davis then enrolled at Louisiana State University, to play college baseball for the LSU Tigers baseball team.
Davis was a letterman on the 2004 College World Series team and a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection.
Davis began his coaching career in 2008 as the coordinator of baseball operations at LSU. [2] In 2009, Davis was promoted to assistant coach. The Tigers won the 2009 College World Series. Davis quickly developed a reputation as a strong on-field coach and aggressive recruiter, particularly in his home state of Louisiana.
On January 15, 2016, Davis was the head coach in waiting of the Lamar Cardinals baseball program. In 2016 Davis spent the season at Lamar while serving as head coach in waiting and at times the acting head coach. The Cardinals went 35-19 defeating national powers Texas, Arizona, and LSU.
Davis was tasked with re-stocking a roster that had missed the 2015 and 2016 recruiting classes due to the retirement announcement and subsequent retirement of long-time Cardinals coach Jim Gilligan. With 13 seniors remaining from Gilligan's last year but no other classes in the program Davis was able to sign future MLB draft picks Carson Lance and Tanner Driskill late and put together a 33-25 season in his first campaign as head coach.
With the 13-man senior class leaving, Davis methodically built the program back up by bringing in nationally ranked recruiting classes for the first time in school history. The 2017 class was ranked #73 in the nation by Perfect Game (#1 in the Southland Conference while the 2018 class was ranked #92 nationally and #2 in the Southland. As the young players began to develop, Davis switched his recruiting approach to supplementing the program with older junior college players and received national rankings by the JUCO Baseball Blog of #22 in 2020 and #7 in 2021.
In 2021 the rebuild was complete with the Cardinals having a winning season and reaching the postseason for the first time since 2017.
The 2022 Lamar Cardinals enjoyed their best season in roughly a decade going 37-21 with a 20-10 record in the WAC good enough for a 2nd place finish. The Cardinals enjoyed wins over perennial powers Rice (twice), Houston, and eventual national runner-up Oklahoma.
Davis followed up 2022 with another successful season in 2023 going 32-23 and finishing in 3rd place in the Southland Conference. The Cardinals defeated Kansas State, Houston, Baylor, #5 Texas A&M, and eventual national semifinalist TCU. Lamar Catcher Ryan Snell was named Southland Conference Player of the Year and a Buster Posey Award Finalist.
The Cardinals finished 2024 with the best record in Lamar history at 44-15. The season was highlighted by a sweep of Big 12 Champion Oklahoma on the road. Davis earned the Clay Gould Coach of the Year award for the Southland's top coach. Brooks Caple won Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year and the Cardinals eclipsed the 40-win mark and won a conference championship for the first time since 2004. Davis was named to Baseball America's top 50 coaches to watch for the Summer of 2024.
Davis has developed a reputation as one of the premier catching coaches in the nation. Four of his catchers at LSU were drafted: Kade Scivicque (4th Round), Tyler Moore (5th Round) Michael Papierski (9th Round), and Chris Chinea (17th Round) while three more at Lamar have played professional baseball: Bryndan Arredondo (22nd Round), Anthony Quirion (free agent sign), and Ryan Snell (7th Round).
Michael Papierski has since made it to the Major Leagues while Scivicque and Ryan Snell were both named All-Americans and Buster Posey (formerly Johnny Bench) Award Finalists.
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lamar Cardinals (Southland Conference)(2017–2021) | |||||||||
2017 | Lamar | 33–25 | 16–14 | 7th | Southland Tournament | ||||
2018 | Lamar | 19–36 | 13–17 | 10th | |||||
2019 | Lamar | 18–36 | 9–21 | 13th | |||||
2020 | Lamar | 7–10 | 0–3 | Season canceled due to COVID-19 | |||||
2021 | Lamar | 25–23 | 17–19 | 8th | Southland Tournament | ||||
Lamar: | |||||||||
Lamar Cardinals (Western Athletic Conference)(2022) | |||||||||
2022 | Lamar | 37–21 | 20–10 | 2nd (Southwest) | WAC Tournament | ||||
Lamar: | 20–10 | ||||||||
Lamar Cardinals (Southland Conference)(2023–present) | |||||||||
2023 | Lamar | 32–23 | 13–11 | 3rd | Southland Tournament | ||||
2024 | Lamar | 44–15 | 17–7 | 1st | Southland Tournament | ||||
Lamar: | 215–189 | ||||||||
Total: | 215–189 (.532) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion |
Lamar University is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2022, the university enrollment was 17,044 students. Lamar University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and named for Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas.
The Buster Posey Award, formerly known as the Johnny Bench Award, was created in 2000 to honor college baseball's top catcher in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The award is administered by the Wichita Sports Commission and presented after the conclusion of the College World Series. Originally named for Johnny Bench, it was renamed in honor of Buster Posey in 2019.
Raymond Peter "Smoke" Laval is an American college baseball coach who was the head coach of the University of North Florida Ospreys. He is a former head coach of the Louisiana State University Tigers and the University of Louisiana at Monroe Indians baseball teams. He has led his teams to two College World Series, five conference championships, and seven NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearances, and has received a number of coaching awards.
George "Tic" Price is an American college basketball coach. He last coached the Lamar Cardinals men's basketball team. From 2002 to 2007, he served as head coach at McNeese State. Prior to that, he served as head coach of Memphis and New Orleans. Price's daughter is Sports Illustrated model Chanel Iman, who married NFL wide receiver Sterling Shepard in 2017. He is married to the former Jamie Lynn Simms, and the couple has two children - son, Ryan, a college basketball coach who played for his father at McNeese, and daughter, Chanel. He has three granddaughters - Bella Grace Price, Cali Clay Shepard and Cassie Snow Shepard.
Steve Roccaforte is an American college basketball coach, currently an assistant men's basketball coach at Texas A&M. He joined Joe Dooley's staff on July 23, 2018 after four seasons as the associate head coach at Virginia Tech. Roccaforte also served as assistant coach for three seasons at the University of South Florida after serving as the head basketball coach at his alma mater Lamar University from 2006 to 2011, compiling a record of 76–78.
David Grewe is the former head baseball coach at Michigan State University and former associate head baseball coach at Louisiana State University, and former head baseball coach at Milligan College, and former assistant baseball coach at Notre Dame, Central Michigan and University of Chicago. He won the 2009 National Championship in Omaha, Nebraska with the LSU Tigers.
The Lamar Cardinals and Lady Cardinals refers to the college athletics teams of Lamar University, in Beaumont, Texas. The Cardinals and Lady Cardinals teams compete in seventeen NCAA Division I sports as a member of the Southland Conference. The Cardinals rejoined the Southland after spending the 2021–22 athletic year in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
The Florida State Seminoles baseball team represents Florida State University in the sport of college baseball. Florida State competes in NCAA Division I, and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Jim Gilligan is an American former head baseball coach, primarily for the Lamar Cardinals baseball program.
The Lamar Cardinals basketball team represents Lamar University in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. The Cardinals currently play in the Southland Conference following a return from the Western Athletic Conference on July 11, 2022. They were one of four programs, all from Texas, that left the Southland Conference on July 1, 2021, to join the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Lamar left the Southland Conference for the second time, having initially joined at the league's formation in 1963, left in 1987, and returned in 1999. After one season in the WAC, Lamar returned to the Southland Conference. The Cardinals have played home games in the Montagne Center since 1984. The Lamar University basketball team is one of the school's most storied athletic programs. The Cardinals have competed in NCAA Tournament play eleven times and six times at the NCAA Division I level with the most recent appearance in the 2012 tournament. The 1979–80 team was one of the 1980 tournament's Sweet Sixteen teams. The Cardinals have also competed in four NIT tournaments. Heading into the 2014–2015 season Lamar had a 284–143 record in the Montagne Center. The Cardinals overall record going into the 2014–2015 season was 922–818.
Larry Dan Tidwell, is the head coach for the Schulenburg High School women’s basketball team. Before moving to Kansas, he served as women's basketball head coach from 2013–2018 at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, having been retained when his former institution, the University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA), merged with the University of Texas at Brownsville. Prior to this position, he was head coach of the Lamar Lady Cardinals basketball team for six seasons from 2007–2013, as well as the Lamar athletics director from June 2010 to May 2011.
The Lamar Cardinals baseball team represents Lamar University and competes in the Southland Conference of the NCAA's Division I after officially rejoining the conference on July 11, 2022. The team is coached by head coach, Will Davis following Jim Gilligan's retirement at the end of the 2016 season. Except for five seasons (1987–1991), the Cardinals baseball team had been coached by Jim Gilligan since 1973. With over 1000 career wins as a head coach, Gilligan was one of the most winning coaches in NCAA history.
The Lamar Lady Cardinals basketball team represents Lamar University in NCAA Division I women's basketball competition. The team plays in the 10,080 seat Montagne Center. The Lady Cardinals currently compete at the NCAA Division I level in the Southland Conference.
The 2015 Lamar Cardinals baseball team represents Lamar University in the 2015 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Cardinals play their home games at Vincent–Beck Stadium and are members of the Southland Conference. The team is coached by Jim Gilligan in his 39th season at Lamar.
The 2016 Lamar Cardinals baseball team represented Lamar University in the 2016 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Cardinals played their home games at Vincent–Beck Stadium and are members of the Southland Conference. The team was coached by Jim Gilligan in his 39th and final season at Lamar.
The Lamar Lady Cardinals soccer team represents Lamar University in NCAA Division I college soccer. The team, currently led by head coach Nathan Kogut, competes in the Southland Conference. The team's initial season was 2007. The Lady Cardinals' home stadium is the Lamar Soccer Complex located on the university's campus. The team began playing home games there starting with the 2009 season. The Lady Cardinals home stadium for the first two seasons was Cardinal Stadium now named Provost Umphrey Stadium.
The 2018–19 Lamar Cardinals basketball team represented Lamar University during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Cardinals were led by fifth-year head coach Tic Price and played their home games at the Montagne Center in Beaumont, Texas as members of the Southland Conference.
The 2020 Lamar Cardinals baseball team represented Lamar University in the 2020 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Cardinals played their home games at Vincent–Beck Stadium and are members of the Southland Conference. The team was coached by Will Davis in his 4th season at Lamar. The Cardinals compiled a 7–8 overall record prior to season cancellation. On March 12, the Southland Conference announced a suspension of Spring sports through March 30 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference announced that all remaining Spring 2020 sports contests were cancelled on March 14.
The 2021 Lamar Cardinals baseball team represented Lamar University during the 2021 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Cardinals played their home games at Vincent–Beck Stadium and were led by fifth–year head coach Will Davis. They were members of the Southland Conference. This was Lamar's final year in the Southland as they will be moving to the Western Athletic Conference for the 2022 season.
The 2024 Lamar Cardinals baseball team represented Lamar University during the 2024 NCAA Division I baseball season as members of the Southland Conference. The Cardinals played their home games at Vincent–Beck Stadium and were led by eighth–year head coach Will Davis. On May 16, the team clinched at least a share of the conference regular season championship. The Cardinals moved to sole regular season champions due to a 6–10 Nicholls loss to McNeese in both teams' final regular season game on May 18. The team compiled a 44–15 overall record and were 17–7 in conference play winning the regular season championship. They qualified for the SLC tournament as the number 1 seed. The Cardinals advanced to the tournament semi–finals with a 3–2 tournament record losing their first game 3–6 to 8th seeded Incarnate Word and winning three elimination games defeating 4th seeded Northwestern State 12–5, Incarnate Word 18–6 7, and McNeese 18–9. Their season ended with a loss to McNeese 4–14 7.