Ohio high school football coaching news: Troy Davis resigns as Louisville head coach
LOUISVILLE — The decision was difficult. Many hours were spent considering the future. In the end, Troy Davis decided to resign as the head football coach at Louisville High School after a tough three-season stint rebuilding the program while navigating through COVID-19 and not being in a league.
“I actually made the decision on Friday,” Davis said. “I told the people closest to me that was going to be the decision and I took a couple of days to let it settle in and make sure it was the right decision and it felt like it was. I thought I had dealt with the emotions of it, but I’ve had such an outpouring of support today that it has brought me back to tears a couple of times.”
Davis’s tenure was marked by difficult schedules and adjusting the program to life as an independent program.
Hired in December 2019, he was the first head coach in school history to spend more than one year at the helm outside of a league. His final record was 7-22 while competing against mainly bigger Federal League schools, playoff teams such as Northwest and traditional state powers such as Steubenville. Louisville went 2-11 against Federal League opponents the last three years.
This season, the Leopards played:
Just one team that did not make the playoffs (Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin);
Five teams with at least eight wins (they beat eight-win Northwest);
Two teams in regional finals (Lake and Steubenville);
And their opponents had an overall record of 70-47 (.598).
Last year, it was four teams with at least eight wins on the schedule.
“The schedule was a battle,” Davis said. “I use this analogy a lot but it was a lot like being a farmer trying to plant corn during a hurricane. The schedule felt suffocating at times but I’m proud of the kids for continuing to fight and find ways to grow. Ultimately, I thought we were able to build the program up in every aspect except wins. I had taken steps to adjust the schedule in the coming years and I think that will ease up a bit.”
Despite all those factors, Davis didn’t want things to reach a point where the decision to leave would be outside of his hands.
“We all know winning is the thing that ultimately keeps you employed,” Davis said. “I wanted to get in and out before I started to feel pressure. I feel like pressure changes how you coach and I just don’t think it’s a job you can do when you are looking over your shoulder at the same time. I told the administration when they hired me that this place is very important to me and that I was not going to leave the job angry. It was important to me to leave on my own terms.”
Though he will no longer be the head coach, Davis has stressed his willingness to help the program transition in any way that he can.
“The most important thing to me is the well being of the kids,” Davis said. “I’m not going to just leave them hanging. I want to make sure that their interest is being served and I am willing to help out the new coach in any way I can. Helping the kids is my primary concern right now.”
Davis still expects to be around the Louisville program going forward in some fashion.
“I think this is the right thing for the program and might inject some juice into it,” Davis said. “I’ll always be involved with Louisville football. I don’t know what that is going to entail. It could be as a volunteer, an assistant coach or as a member of the Touchdown Club. Louisville is a special place and this is a special program to me.”
Reach cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @chickmanREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Troy Davis resigns as Louisville High School football head coach
