NAIA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT:Unbeaten Vanguard has experienced a loss

It has been a season without defeat for the Vanguard University women’s basketball team.

But not without loss.

Russ Davis knows that to be true. His mother died last month.

Davis, in his 11th season as the Lions’ coach, is 13 wins away from 300 with the Costa Mesa-based school, where he has fostered an atmosphere in which players, parents and coaches pull tightly together not only in competition, but in life.

Davis’ players, including four senior starters who have helped the Lions hold the top national ranking for 22 of the last 23 NAIA Division I coaches polls, speak glowingly of his sensitivity to them as people, not just athletes.

Senior point guard Tiari Goold said Davis’ daily attention to his players’ moods, and the daily triumph and travail that triggers them, will regularly prompt him to avoid being harsh with a player whom he knows is having a bad day.

Kelly Schmidt, in her fourth season in Davis’ program, called him a great coach. But in addition to praising his understanding of basketball and his ability to put players in position to succeed on the court, Schmidt said Davis’ people skills may serve him even better than his X’s and O’s.

“One of the reasons he is such a good coach is that he realizes that it’s not all basketball, all the time,” Schmidt said. “He really takes the time to get to know us and to understand how we think. He knows us so well, he knows what is important to us. And he knows there’s a bond there.”

As close as he gets to his team, there was a bond that Davis cherished above all others — his relationship with his mom, Joan Schott.

“I can definitely be classified as a momma’s boy,” said Davis, who noted that his mother’s willingness to work two and three jobs, helped him pursue high school coaching as a walk-on (non teacher) at a young age, rather than feel pressure to find a more lucrative line of work.

“She wanted me to do what I loved,” recalled Davis, whose mom died suddenly in early February in Broomfield, Iowa, where she had returned from Orange County to live 10 years ago.

“My mom listened to every one of our games on the radio, and followed every game with live stats [an internet service that offers live statistical play-by-play of games],” Davis said. “I used to call my mom every morning. She was my voice of reason. If we lost a close game, she would tell me ‘Now don’t you be mad at the girls.’ She could always find positives in any situation.”

Positives were difficult to come by when Davis heard the news, upon which he left the team and returned to Iowa to bury his mom.

“It’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever been through,” said Davis, who leaned heavily on family, friends, co-workers, and, of course, his players, both current and former.

Schott’s birthday was March 10, an occasion Davis had, for the last 25 years, marked by sending his mother flowers.

“I couldn’t send her flowers, so I got some roses and handed them to every one of our players at practice that day,” said Davis, who will forever be thankful for the love and support his Vanguard family showed then, and continues to show him now, during his time of grief.

“[Vanguard Athletic Director] Bob Wilson was there for me, every second, the day my mom passed away,” Davis said. “And the way I was treated by the whole athletic staff, the president, the whole school, really touched me. And the support my players showed was unbelievable. It reinforced why I recruit character and why character is so important to me in a player. All these girls have great hearts. I’ve always said that as good as they are as basketball players, they’re even more outstanding as people.”

Davis said the support he experienced from Vanguard reinforced why he regularly greets inquiries about why he has not pursued a more high-profile coaching position, with a knowing smile.

“I get questions all the time, because of our success, about why I wouldn’t want to go somewhere else,” Davis said. “But isn’t life about being happy? I’m happy here and I love what I do. I’m in a Christian environment where morals and values are important. It’s a no-brainer [to want to stay].”

Said Goold, “It wasn’t hard for us to be there for him, because he is always there for us.”

Schmidt said it felt good to be of some comfort to her coach.

“It’s good that he knows we’re here for him if he ever needs anything,” Schmidt said. “A lot of his family is back in Iowa, but we’re his family out here.”

Davis said he and his younger brother Doug, who is also a huge Vanguard fan, agreed that Davis would dedicate this season to their mom.

Doug Davis drove overnight to Jackson, Tenn. for the top-seeded Lions’ 74-64 first-round victory Wednesday at the NAIA Tournament, which continues through Tuesday at Oman Arena.

Doug Davis said he will be in Jackson, as long as Vanguard is competing. The Lions play against Oklahoma City today at 8:45 a.m.

“I told my boss, I would probably be gone a week,” said Doug Davis, whose presence is greatly appreciated by his older brother, who coached him two seasons on the Woodbridge High frosh-soph boys’ basketball team in the mid-1980s.

“When we were in Iowa, one of the first things Doug said to me was that we needed to win the national championship for mom,” Russ Davis said. “It was a very emotional moment.”

Doug Davis, 37, a finance manager for an RV sales business who also helps with his family’s business raising quarter horses in Iowa, was equally close to their mother, whom he considered a best friend.

Doug Davis recalls his brother, eight years his elder and who also coached his youth baseball teams, as an excellent coach. The younger Davis said his brother’s willingness to outwork opposing coaches helped give his teams an edge.

Doug Davis, a reserve in both of his frosh-soph basketball seasons, said the team did not lose a game during the two seasons he was coached by his brother.

Further, Doug Davis said in all the years he has seen his brother’s teams play, they have not lost when he has been in attendance. So add another to the Vanguard family that hopes to celebrate what would be the program’s first national championship, the perfect ending to a season dedicated to Russ Davis’ biggest fan.