Lee Davis knows the players who helped the Columbus High School baseball program have the best run in its history.
Davis also has coached and has worked in the area long enough to know what it takes to be successful at Columbus High.
That’s part of the reason the veteran coach wanted to take on the challenge of becoming Columbus High’s new baseball coach. On Monday, the Columbus Municipal School Board approved Davis to be the program’s new coach. Davis replaces Jeffrey Bryan Dean, who was approved as coach in June.
“When the job opened up, I felt like I would do a good job for the district and do a good job as coach,” Davis said. “I have coached a lot of those kids through the program and we have got some good athletes there. I am looking forward to it.”
Dean, who last coached at Letcher County Central (Ky.) High, resigned from his position at the start of the 2015-16 school year. He replaced Dallas Flippo, who resigned after spending the 2014 season as the school’s interim baseball coach. Flippo is now an assistant coach at Hamilton High.
Davis, who is a physical education teacher at Columbus Middle School, also is the football coach at the school. He has worked at Columbus Middle School since 2009, which has given him the opportunity to build relationships with former Falcons like Trace Lee, Hunter Mullis, Chris McCullough, Greg Sykes, Tyler Harmon, and Gevonta Webb. He also has worked with current Falcons like Deonteau Rieves and Demarcus White, and Jaylan Lenoir and likes the potential he sees in the program.
“We will be a young squad,” Davis said. “We will have some returning starters and a couple of pitchers. We are going to try to develop the pitchers. If you have a kid throwing strikes, that is half of the battle right there.
“If you do the right things enough and practice the right things enough, the repetition takes over and you find yourself being successful. I want the kids to play hard, respect the game, and if you give all you have got, it will give back to you.”
Davis has an extensive background as a coach in the area. He worked as varsity football coach at Heritage Academy in 2007-08, where he went 5-17. He also worked as varsity football coach and assistant baseball coach at Central Academy from 2003-05. He went 13-17 as head football coach. Davis worked as football coach and assistant baseball coach at Carrollton (Ala.) High in 2002 and worked as head baseball coach at Starkville Academy from 1995-99. He also worked as head football coach at the school in 1998, leading the team to a 4-6 record.
Davis worked in his first stint at Central Academy in 1993. He went 2-8 as the school’s head football coach. He also worked as the school’s varsity baseball coach.
Davis said he has worked with a number of talented coaches throughout the years, including current Caledonia High baseball coach John Wilson (at Columbus) and Pickens Academy (Ala.) baseball coach Brach White (at Central Academy) and will use the lessons he has learned from those men and many others in his new job. He said he also is excited to work with Columbus High Athletic Director Sammy Smith, who had the interim title removed from his job description Monday.
“Coach Smith is getting everything like it needs to be going,” Davis said.
To accomplish the same goal with the Columbus High baseball program, which went 3-13 last season, Davis knows the players will have to invest the time and energy like many of the former Falcons did. Those players flourished under former Columbus coach Jeff Cook, who arrived in 2006 and went 116-98 in eight seasons. In Cook’s final season, Columbus extended its school-record streak of consecutive playoff appearances to four en route to a 23-8 finish.
Davis said he wants to build on the things Cook and Flippo, who was an assistant coach under Cook, established with the program because he said both coaches “left the program in a better state” than it was when they started.
“I am really going to challenge them to practice hard and practice the right way,” Davis said. “We just plan to make strides. As long as we are taking positive steps, those are the right steps.
Davis grew up in Starkville and attended Starkville Academy. He said he had a baseball scholarship to play at East Mississippi Community College but passed it up to go to Mississippi State, where he tried out for and made the football team. Davis said he will take a more “laid-back” approach to coaching baseball than he did when he was a head football coach. He said he prefers to do his teaching in practice and let the players use what they have learned in the game.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.