Hargis: Season-opening win ends more than a losing streak for Polk County coach

Polk County coach Derrick Davis pumps his fist at his team for encouragement during a 2015 game.
Polk County coach Derrick Davis pumps his fist at his team for encouragement during a 2015 game.
photo Polk County head coach Derrick Davis leads his players during a scrimmage against East Hamilton High School.
photo Stephen has covered sports in the tri-state area for the Times Free Press for more than 25 years and was named Sports Editor in February of 2015 after 10 years as assistant sports editor.

Picture the worst day you've ever had at work. I mean the type of day that just makes you want to go home, curl up under the covers and pray the next day gets better.

Now imagine experiencing that feeling every day for more than two years.

That was Derrick Davis' life from a chilly early November night in 2013 until last Friday as his Polk County football team went more than two seasons without a win. The Wildcats finally snapped the state's longest active losing streak at 21 last week with a seven-point win at East Ridge.

"Nobody felt worse for two years than me," said Davis, who not only is coaching at his alma mater but also took over the program from his dad, who had spent 27 years as Polk County's coach and has continued as Derrick's assistant. "Every time I walk out of the fieldhouse for a home game I see 'Larry G. Davis Field' and I'm proud of what he did, and I'm trying to make him proud of me, too.

"For the last couple of years I wondered if he was still proud of me. I felt like I was letting everybody down - my dad and mom, my wife and my two daughters, plus our whole community."

Davis, who would rather win than eat when he's hungry, had built his alma mater into one of the area's most successful prep programs, averaging nine wins per season during a 13-year stretch that included five straight region championships and a playoff berth each year. That included an undefeated regular season in 2009, and ironically during that period the Wildcats had a region win streak that reached 21 straight.

Despite all that success, for the past two years Davis took each loss as a personal failure. And living in a small community only seemed to make the losing streak more noticed. As the losses kept piling up, some folks shrugged at it and others chuckled. Davis withdrew.

Several years ago, before he turned 40, Davis was diagnosed with clinical depression and began taking medication for the illness. Part of that struggle is a tendency to become antisocial, and as each week passed and another loss was added to the list, sadness began to weigh on Davis like an extra layer of clothes.

Most nights he lay awake until 2 or 3 a.m., staring at the ceiling and worrying over how to fix the program. He became a hermit, not even stepping out in public to go to dinner with his family.

"It's embarrassing," Davis admitted. "And it's probably sad to some people who don't understand coaching, but it got to where I wouldn't go to Cleveland or Chattanooga because I didn't want to see people we know and have to keep answering 'What's wrong with the football team?'

"I understand it's not the end of the world to lose a ballgame, but it's my job. I reached a point where I was sleeping about two or three hours and I wondered if I was the right guy to be here."

Over the course of the losing streak Davis saw a promising group of 25 freshmen dwindle to the point that only six of those remain on the team as seniors. Most folks who understand high school football realize that every program, particularly small public schools, go through down cycles, so Davis' job was never in serious jeopardy because of one dry spell.

One lesson Davis, who has prided himself on teaching his teams always to play with emotion, learned through the trials of the past two years is to soak up every second of joy from a win.

"I used to be one of those coaches who was already thinking about the next opponent before I walked off the field after a game," Davis said. "I regret not enjoying the success we had more, but I've got a different perspective now.

"And those six seniors that stuck it out, hopefully now they know when life is tough, and it will hit them somewhere along the way, good things will happen if you hang in there and keep battling."

For the better part of two years Davis was an example to his players of someone who continued to battle, hoping the hard work would turn things back around. And as the final seconds ticked off the clock last week, Davis found his dad on the sideline to give him a congratulatory hug.

Before he let go of his son, Larry looked Derrick in the eye and said simply, "I'm proud of you, son."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.

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