Jimmies TE Nick Davis shows out at the 2021 NAIA Senior Football Classic

Dec. 23—For the first time in history, the University of Jamestown had a representative at the 2021 NAIA Senior Football Classic on Friday, Dec. 17. Jimmies tight end Nick Davis was named to the East roster for the game in Durham, North Carolina.

All of the players were outfitted with team jerseys but wore their own helmets, which meant that Davis was donning his orange Jimmies helmet under the lights. He is hoping that his presence in the game will not be the last time the Jimmies have a representative on that field.

"It was really cool for me. I feel that in the future there are going to be a lot more Jimmies selected for this and I'm glad to be putting the Jimmie football team on the map," Davis said. "I think it will help them to get a lot more exposure and I hope it does. I feel like with the way that the program is headed now, in the future there will be a lot more Jimmies selected for it. I can't wait to see where they go from there and how they show out."

Jimmies head coach Brian Mistro said he is hoping that Davis' participation in the game can help with recruiting future student-athletes.

"It's awesome," Mistro said. "It's something you promote and use for guys in the future, like 'hey guys we have guys playing in the NAIA senior showcase,' which is a really big deal. You definitely want to have that ability and that opportunity in your career if you can."

Davis showed why he deserved the nomination from Mistro by leading his team in receiving yards with 45. His performance was punctuated by the opening play of the game, a 40-yard reception to put his team at the 50-yard line, on a drive that eventually resulted in a touchdown. The 40-yard reception was the longest play by either team in the game.

"I took a lot of pride in it. I thought it was really cool that they were able to utilize me in the way that they were," Davis said. "It was a fun experience for me and I take it for granted sometimes that I'm proud to show up for the University of Jamestown and the Jamestown football team and like I said before, helping to increase their visibility across the United States."

Mistro and Davis were caught a little bit off guard by the call because it had been a few weeks after the season of hearing nothing between the time that Mistro nominated Davis and when Davis heard. Mistro did tell Davis that he sent his name in for the game.

"Which, I was grateful for because I didn't have the stats to get in on my own," Davis said. "So, it was really cool that he nominated me. Neither of us had actually heard anything until I was selected. So, the season had ended and everything was wrapped up and I didn't know what was going to happen. It was really cool to go tell him that I had been selected after that because it was a rewarding experience."

As a result of the lack of practice time, Davis said the East team only instituted 15 plays to run and worked hard on getting those plays down. Outside of practice, the teams spent a lot of time getting to know one another.

"We had quite a bit of free time outside of practice and outside of the game," Davis said. "So, there were hours every day where we were all in a hotel in North Carolina and nobody really knew what to do. So, we did a lot of hanging out and bonding as a team. We ate all our meals together, we had a lot of meetings. So we did get to know each other pretty well over the course of just a few days. I thought that was really cool as well."

After spending four years at Jamestown under Mistro and former coach Josh Kittell, Davis noted that it was interesting to see how other coaches run their practices.

"It was cool because some of them were a lot more fast paced and some were slow paced," Davis said. "Some of the coaches focused a lot on preparation, and other coaches focused on getting in the right mental mindset.

"Some of the coaches didn't want to watch film, they didn't want to prepare as much because they felt that the more mentally prepared you were on how good you were gonna do, the better you would do and it didn't matter what the other team was going to do. They didn't care if the other team knew what kind of plays we were going to run because all they wanted to focus on was us being as good on those plays as we could in the shortest amount of time possible and just focusing on us beating them instead of them overcoming us."

The atmosphere on the field was mixed between being locked in and having fun taking in the experience, Davis said.

"I think it was a bit of both. I think everybody realized for the most part it was going to be the last game they ever played so they wanted to play as hard as they could," Davis said. "At the same time, they wanted to just have fun because, in the end, that's why we play football in the first place."

Despite the presence of scouts at the game, Davis said that he will not look to continue his football career after graduation.