Pamela Davis
Pamela Davis was a 1984 graduate of Austintown Fitch High school where she competed in Basketball and Track and Field. As a Falcon, she was a 3 year letterwinner in basketball and a 4 year letter winner in track. Pam scored over 1,000 points in her career, was Steel Valley Player of the Year x2 , NEO POY x2 and was a 1st team All Ohio selection in AAA. She also ran in the 100m, 200m, 4 x100 relay and 4×200 relay in the Track and Field State Championships. She was inducted in the inaugural Austintown Fitch Athletic Hall of Fame.
Pam went on to play basketball at The University of Akron from 1984-1988 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Pathology in 1989. During that time, she was a Team Captain and Team MVP for 2 years, was an All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and earned the Caroline Pardee Female Athlete of the Year for the Zips. She also gained All American Honors as a Senior. Today, you will see her name in many of the record books and her banner is hanging in the rafters at the JAR Arena. She was inducted into the University of Akron HOF in 1999. Pam earned a Master’s degree in Communicative Disorders in 1991 and became a Speech Language Pathologist in acute and long-term care.
One of Pam’s early coaching influences was her grandfather, Ralph Robinette. Her coaching career began in 1989 as a 7th grade girls coach at Erwine Middle School. She coached middle school students for 4 seasons leading them to a 52-4 record. After that time for the next 31 seasons, she went on to coach at 4 different high schools including Coventry, Barberton, Canton McKinley and Archbishop Hoban. Her record is an impressive 613-121 for a 83.5% winning percentage. She has won multiple Sectional and District titles along with 5 Regional Titles and a State Title in 2010.
She has been honored to coach the Ohio North-South All-Star Game and the Summit Stark All-Star Game and was chosen as Coach of the Year in the PAC 7, Western Reserve, Federal League and North Coast Conferences over the years as well as District 4 Coach of the Year on multiple occasions. Pam also coached Track and Field for 15 years at both Barberton and Canton McKinley.
Pam has had over 25 players awarded Division I scholarships, and 50 players went on to excel in college ball. She has coached 5 Miss Basketballs in Ameryst Alston and Kierstan Bell. She has had 4 players go on to play professionally overseas and 1 player currently in the WNBA. Coach Davis’ main emphasis in coaching is to create teams that shoot and pass well, rebound and run the fast break, dominate on defense, and play unselfishly as a team. She believes that intense practice coupled with mental preparation enables her players to enjoy the competition and perform at their best.
The absolute best part of her basketball journey is that she has been able to share all these experiences with her husband of 27 years, Willie Davis Jr. Without him coaching with her on the sideline, the memories wouldn’t be the same. She hopes to continue to make basketball memories for a few more years. Pam is currently a Speech Language Pathologist in the Canton City School District. The Davis’ reside in Akron, Ohio.