William Randall Davis Jr. (born May 29, 1984) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

coach and former

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

. Davis is the head coach of the

Lamar Cardinals baseball 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 ...

team. Davis is the son of former college baseball coach Randy Davis who was an assistant coach at UL-Monroe,

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, and

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and the head coach at

Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – Hig ...

. The elder Davis died in February 2022. Will Davis is married to the former Danielle Hall of

Bogalusa, Louisiana Bogalusa ( ) is a city in Washington Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,232 at the 2010 census. In th2020 censusthe city reported a population of 10,659. It is the principal city of the Bogalusa Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...

. She is a former cheerleader for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

. The couple have three children Everly (2016), Coco (2020), and Crash (2022).

Playing career

Davis attended Robert E. Lee High School (now

Liberty Magnet High School Liberty Magnet High School (also known as LMHS, Liberty High and formerly Lee High School) is a public magnet school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, founded in the 1950s but was closed in 2009. The school was subsequently reopened in 20 ...

) in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

. Davis played for the school's varsity

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team. Davis then enrolled at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, to play

for the

LSU Tigers baseball The LSU Tigers baseball team represents Louisiana State University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team participates in of the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers play home games on LSU's campus at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field, ...

team. Davis was a letterman on the 2004 College World Series team and a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection.

Coaching career

Davis began his coaching career in 2008 as the coordinator of baseball operations at LSU. In 2009, Davis was promoted to assistant coach. The Tigers won the

2009 College World Series The 2009 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was held from May 29 through June 24, 2009 and is part of the 2009 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64 NCAA Division I college baseball teams were selected out of an eligible 286 teams on May 25, ...

. 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

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 Jim Gilligan (born October 1, 1946) is an American former head baseball coach, primarily for the Lamar Cardinals baseball program. In his 38 seasons as head coach, Gilligan has guided Lamar's baseball team to 11 conference championships, 13 NCA ...

. 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. The 2025 season produced many of the same results. The Cardinals finished with 40 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2003-2004. Damian Ruiz was named Southland Conference Hitter of the Year, marking the 3rd year in a row that the Cardinals had a POY (Snell & Caple).

Coaching Catchers

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 Michael John Papierski (born February 26, 1996) is an American professional baseball catcher and first baseman who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds. Papiers ...

(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.

Head coaching record

References

External links