Ryan Davis is returning to Region IX after being named the next women’s basketball coach at Western Nebraska Community College.
Davis, who was previously the head coach at Sheridan College for three seasons before Sheridan eliminated their athletic programs in the spring of 2020, has been an assistant and head coach in the Region IX north off and on since 2010. Davis had a 54-44 record with Sheridan.
Davis is excited to be back in Region IX coaching women’s basketball.
“This will be my fourth time in the region either as a head or assistant and the region just keeps pulling me back in,” Davis said. “It means everything to be here. Actually, this has been my home after college. Region IX has been my home and it means a lot.”
Davis is excited to be taking over a Cougar program that is rich in success and tradition.
“For the other three times I have been in the region, every single time, Western Nebraska has been one of the top schools in the region for men’s and women’s basketball,” Davis said. “So, I know what the history is here and to get a job like this means a lot and hopefully to keep doing really great things and keep the history going will be fun.”
WNCC athletic director Ryan Burgner said he is excited to have Davis as a Cougar coach.
“I am excited to have Coach Davis join the Cougar family,” Burgner said. “I am excited about the future of Cougar women’s basketball.”
While at Sheridan, the Generals had plenty of success and his main objective now is contacting the players and recruiting a few more as school starts in about three weeks.
“The goal right now is to make sure that the players previously signed and haven’t been here (the new-class kids) or the kids that are returning will be here in the fall,” he said. “That is the number one thing and that is what I am working on right now. If we can keep a core of those kids together, I think we will have a good starting point and from there we only have three weeks, so we have to sign some kids. Outside of the recruiting, I am up here right now to figure out housing for myself and to get settled in and to meet people here and at the college. Those are the big things and when those things are done, it will be time hitting the ground running.”
His goal at WNCC is to continue the winning tradition that the previous coaches instilled with the Cougars.
“Coach (Chad) Gibney and Coach (Isaac) Lu did a really fine job and kept it at a national level. My goal is to get to a point where we are THE school in the region in winning regional championships consistently,” Davis said. “If we can do that and get to the national tournament, and really you shoot for the stars and if you don’t get quite there, I think the Top 25 is something I consistently would like to be in.”
Davis said he will be recruiting locally in the four-state region. In fact, Davis recruited Cheyenne East’s Madison Blaney to play at Sheridan in 2020, but after athletics were eliminated at Sheridan later that spring, Blaney came and played for the Cougars in 2020-21.
“For recruits, I will recruit regional a little bit,” he said. “I am so familiar with the state of Colorado, state of Wyoming, and South Dakota when I was the assistant coach at Black Hills State. This area, I know pretty well. From there, we will branch out a little bit. We have some contacts internationally, too, to get some girls.”
His first line of duty is to assemble a team. WNCC returns several players from a year ago and already have some players signed for next year.
Davis’ style of play will be fun to watch as he expects the team to be good defensively as well as score.
“My players would say it is intense in a good way,” Davis said. “We will be high energy and we will want to play fast. Very similar to the way Western Nebraska has played the last five to seven years here. Hopefully, when teams play us and leave here, they will go ‘that was a really tough team to play’.”
His background in coaching runs deep. Davis graduated from Bishop Miege High School in 2005 before attending the University of Kansas and earning a degree in sports management in 2010. While at KU, Davis was a manager for the Jayhawks’ men’s basketball team, winning four-straight Big XII titles and a National Championship in 2008. He then earned his master’s at Texas-Permian Basin while serving as an assistant men’s basketball coach.
He was also an assistant coach at Sheridan College from 2010-11, an assistant women’s coach at Casper College (2016-17), Black Hills State (2014-15), and Sheridan again in 2014-15).
Davis comes to Scottsbluff with his wife, Lorraine.
