A Gates County native is coming back to Eastern North Carolina to share his coaching expertise at the high school level.
Antonio O. Davis has been named as the boy’s basketball coach for Martin County High School.
Davis has 20 years of head coaching experience and 32 years overall coaching at the collegiate level.
Known as a disciplinarian, master tactician and motivator who believes in a family atmosphere, Davis has developed programs of well-rounded student-athletes and champions throughout his coaching career.
Davis spent the past three seasons at Central State University in Ohio, building a foundation of academic excellence and athletic prowess through the COVID-19 epidemic, which resulted in a change in culture and discipline.
The team finished with the highest GPA after having one of the lowest at the beginning of his tenure. In addition, the team routinely excelled at providing themselves as role models within the community through mentorship and community service.
The young team continued to build on the court and established a competitive edge that led to a noticeable improvement in the SIAC (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).
Before his time at Central State University, Davis spent the previous three seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at Elizabeth City State University. At ECSU, he developed four all-conference selections while routinely advancing in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA) tournament each season.
Prior to coaching at ECSU, Davis served as an assistant at Shaw University from 2013 to 2017, helping the Bears to three CIAA Southern Division Championships, two NCAA tournament appearances and a CIAA Tournament Championship.
Davis also has experience at the NCAA Division I level, serving as an interim head coach, associate head coach, and assistant coach, with successful stints at North Carolina Central University and South Carolina State University.
He has also been a head coach at Morristown College (1987-88), Livingstone College (1988-91), Kentucky State University (1993-98) and Saint Augustine’s University (2001-07).
As one of the youngest head coaches in the nation, Davis took over a last-place team at Morristown and guided them to a second-place finish in the conference in his only season with the program before moving on to coach at his alma mater — Livingstone College.
At Livingstone, Davis turned a one-win Blue Bears team into a 15-win team before accepting a coaching position at Kentucky State University.
At KSU, Davis rejuvenated a last-place program into a perennial power in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Under Davis, KSU earned consecutive 20-win seasons, earned its first NCAA Tournament appearance, set a regular season-record with 26 wins, won three straight division titles, won a tournament championship and was nationally ranked.
Serving dual roles at KSU, Davis was also the first coach in SIAC history to win both a basketball and volleyball conference championship in the same calendar year.
In six seasons at SAU, he built a consistently competitive team that climbed to as high as No. 20 in the national ranking in 2005. His teams also thrived in the classroom as the Lady Falcons earned four straight CIAA Highest GPA Awards for women’s basketball while continuously contending for CIAA Championships.
“Throughout my career, I have been one to seek out and embrace challenges,” Davis said. “I look forward to opportunities to build programs into a perennial championship contender. I feel my infectious coaching style will translate seamlessly and inspire championship habits and results,” he added. “My players can expect a high level of passion and enthusiasm from me every day.”
In addition to developing multiple All-Conference selections and All-Americans, Davis has instilled an impressive track record of academic success among his players. In seventeen years as a head coach, the graduation rate among his student-athletes is 100 percent, with 70 percent going on to various graduate programs.
“Our young men are going to be the hardest workers in the state. Our goal is to be the best versions of ourselves in the classroom, in the community and on the court”, explained Davis. “I believe in doing things the right way and being detail-oriented. I want our young men to do great things on and off the court. More importantly, I want to see my players succeed in life and become productive citizens in our society.”
Before becoming head coach at the age of 26, Davis was a standout collegiate player at Livingstone in the 1980s. Davis led the nation in scoring with 35 points per game in the 1987-88 season. He earned All-CIAA, All-District 26, and All-America honors while finishing his career as Livingstone’s career-scoring leader with 1,800 points.
Considered to be the greatest shooter in college basketball history, he is the only player to post 50/50/90 career shooting percentages. He shot over 56 percent from the field, 53 percent from three-point range and 94 percent from the free-throw line for his career. No other player in NCAA history has averaged 50/50/90 in a single season.
For his accomplishments as a player, Davis was inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame in March of 2020.
“We are so fortunate to have a coach with the experience and background of Coach Davis’ caliber to be joining the faculty and staff of Martin County High School,” explained Asim McGill, Athletic Director for Martin County Schools. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our basketball program and our overall student-athletes of Martin County High School.
Davis earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Livingstone College and a Master of Science Degree in History from North Carolina A&T. Davis is originally from Sunbury and is married to Nichelle B. Davis.
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