The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Davis III returns to impact Beachwood community
When John Davis III’s senior season ended at Furman last spring, he pondered his next move.
Davis, a star at Beachwood before he played for the Paladins, could head overseas to pursue a professional career and make some money.
“What am I most passionate about right now?” Davis thought. “I was in my dorm room, like why am I playing? What got me here?”
Davis’ own hard work was the primary reason he earned a scholarship to play Division I basketball. Coaches, administrators and custodians at Beachwood knew if they saw him in the gym at 6 a.m. before school every day, he had permission to be there. And Davis was in Beachwood’s gym almost every morning.
Davis reflected on the game as he watched his alma mater lose to Lutheran East in the Division III Garfield Heights District final. The Bison hung with the Falcons, yet Davis knew the game’s result before it ended. Beachwood’s players looked and acted differently than when he played for the Bison, and he certainly didn’t think they had the makeup of winners.
Ultimately, Davis decided to follow his heart and return home after he completed his Bachelor’s degree in communications. When Beachwood brought Matt Miller back to lead the program, Davis joined him as an assistant.
“I’d rather help other kids find their passion and develop them to get to the next level,” Davis said, “rather than me going overseas, making a few bucks just to say I made it playing. That’d have been cool, but I like being in here more.”
Miller’s first season of his first stint as coach was also Davis’ senior year. A year earlier, Davis was the Ohio D-III Associated Press co-Player of the Year. During Davis’ final season in 2013-14, he led Beachwood to a No. 1 ranking in the state D-III poll.
When Davis heard Beachwood would be changing coaches following Jon Mannarino’s departure, he called athletic director Ryan Peters to let him know he wanted the job. As Peters turned to Miller and his experience, he also wanted to keep Davis on staff. To hear Davis tell it, he and Miller were essentially a package deal.
“I’m like, ‘If Matt’s going then I’m going,’” Davis said. “Matt called me and said, ‘I’m only going if you’re going.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going.’”
Next to his position on Beachwood’s staff, Davis is training local basketball players and hopes to work with NBA players in the next offseason. In the meantime, the Beachwood administration hired Davis to work in the building as a special education assistant.
Miller’s grateful to have one of his best players return to help him on the sideline.
Beachwood’s 2017-18 season was marred by injuries and academic suspensions that kept many of the Bison’s top players off the floor in the season. The season culminated in Mannarino’s departure before the district title game against Lutheran East. A handful of players transferred, which required remaining players to step into starting roles.
One of those was rising senior Jimmie Mitchell, who figured to play reserve minutes as a guard. After he spent the summer training with Davis, Mitchell was thrust into the starting lineup. He capitalized on the opportunity to average 11.1 points and 4.3 assists per game for Beachwood, and put up 41 points in an early season victory against Geneva. The 6-foot guard caught the attention of D-III college coaches during his senior year.
This season — which ended with a sectional final loss at Kirtland — the Bison also featured a bona fide college prospect in senior Jayson Woodrich, who has a chance to play at for a D-I program after a prep or JUCO year. Woodrich averaged 26.7 points per game in his senior season. Davis helped the 6-foot-5 wing hone his ballhandling skills, which have helped him handle the intense pressure placed on him by opposing defenses.
What’s most valuable to Beachwood’s student-athletes is Davis’ experience and mentorship.
“It’s been great because I plan on playing college somewhere,” Woodrich said. “It’s just a great role model to have, he’s known as one of the best players to ever go here and it’s just cool to have somebody like him around with his knowledge of the game.”
As a 22-year-old, Davis is able to relate to teenagers in the same position he was recently. His experience at Furman speaks for itself, where he played 132 games — started 90 — in four seasons. As a senior, Davis averaged 11.3 points and 2.6 assists per game.
An outstanding studentathlete, Miller values Davis as a phenomenal example for their players.
“As good as he was basketball-wise,” Miller said, “he was such a good kid and mature, way more mature than a kid should be, just a good leader and just carried himself, conducted himself the right way. Always someone that was the perfect representation of the school, the team, he probably was a better person than he was a basketball player, which is crazy.”
The main lessons Davis imparts on Beachwood’s student-athletes are humility and to work while they wait for their opportunity to play. As a freshman and sophomore at Furman, he played behind guard Devin Sibley, a star like Davis at his high school in Georgia. Davis texted his mother throughout his freshman season that he wanted to return home, before he decided to approach his sophomore year the same way as his career at Beachwood — work harder than anyone else.
During that time, coach Niko Medved told Davis to work while he waited for his chance to lead the Paladins. The next two years, Davis started 66 of Furman’s 67 games.
“It’s a mindset behind everything you do,” Davis said. “If your habits don’t meet your dreams, you’ve got to change your habits or you’ve got to change your dreams, either one. They go hand-in-hand, they’re correlated in a straight line, together, you can’t get one without the other.”