On and off the football field, Bryan Davis is a family man.
Davis, who recently took over as the new head football coach at Warhill High, said a big reason he took the job in Williamsburg was to move his wife, Alison, closer to her family in Delaware and provide a better community to raise his two boys, Parker and Tate.
His commitment to family is transfers to the gridiron, where his dedication to the players and his coaching philosophy are aimed at establishing a sense of family. He says that unity is equally vital to his team’s success as X’s and O’s.
“Right now, it’s all about getting to know each other and beginning to form a relationship,” Davis said of his first few weeks on the job at Warhill. “I want guys who will run through a wall for each other, and in order to that, we have to trust each other because everything we’re going to do here is going to involve a family atmosphere.”
Davis has wasted little time getting the trust-building process underway at Warhill, despite having to make a four-hour drive from his home near Wilmington, N.C., to do so. Davis made his first trip to Williamsburg two weeks ago – two days after he was announced the Lions’ new head coach – and met with about 80 players and 30 others, including parents and administration, to get a more personal feel for his new position.
“The first thing I told the players was, ‘You didn’t choose me, I chose you,’” Davis said. “I want the players to realize they’re a part of something bigger than just a football team. I want to help them become not just better football players, but better people, because they represent more than just this school. And I want their families to feel like they’re a part of what we’re trying to do.”
Beginning with this week, Davis, a self-proclaimed weight-room junkie, will make the trip from North Carolina to Williamsburg each Monday and stay through Thursday – either with family in Portsmouth or Suffolk, or a hotel – to make sure his players adhere to a demanding weightlifting and conditioning regimen. He says he will continue the process until he finds a job in the social work business for his wife and a home for his family. Davis has also taken a job with Warhill as a social studies teacher pending a renewal of his Virginia teaching license.
This devotion to his players and their development is a characteristic Davis has embodied since he first became a head coach back in the early 2000s at Southwest Guilford High School in High Point, N.C.
After inheriting a program that had lost 32 of its 33 previous games, Davis led the school to consecutive playoff appearances in 2004, 2005 and 2006 all while coordinating nearly every branch of the team from offense to special teams.
Football-wise, the progressions came along nicely for Davis at South Guilford. But after having two kids, Davis wanted a better area to raise a family, so he accepted the head coach position at Topsail High School near Wilmington, N.C., in 2007.
Davis, however, had trouble selling his home in High Point, which was three hours away from Topsail High. Davis, being the gym rat that he is, was reluctant to sacrifice the preseason workouts, so he pitched a tent on the school’s game field and camped out during the week for two months – from June through August – to save himself from a daily three-hour commute.
“The job change was for family reasons, but sleeping in a tent was all about football,” Davis said.
Davis said he had to move his family 12 times over the next 18 months while they waited for their house to sell, but that did not stop him from pulling off a similar rebuilding job at Topsail, a school that had just two winning football seasons in school history and none since 2000.
Davis guided the program to a record eight wins in his first season at the helm, and the first of five consecutive state playoff appearances before stepping down this year with a combined 41-29 record over six seasons.
Davis, who received head coaching offers from a handful North Carolina schools, admits a bump in pay and better opportunities for his family were key factors in his decision to relocate to Virginia.
He views Williamsburg as an ideal place to raise a family of four with two teenage boys, and sees Warhill as an equally suitable place to build and maintain a football program.
“If they buy into me what I’m trying to do, and we all buy into each other, we’ll be successful,” Davis said. “The only variable is time.”
