Chad Davis, and mud
By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
It’s true that North Mason football has the odds stacked against it. The Bulldogs are the second smallest school in the class 2A Olympic League (Klahowya is smaller) and a lack of depth on the football team is always going to be a major component working against them.
Think of it in betting terms in a big Las Vegas casino. You sit down at a blackjack table with a minimum limit of $25 and you have just $50. You can’t afford to lose even once or you will be gone quicker then a leaf in a 50-mph wind.
Injuries are always a major concern in football, but more so when there is already a limit to the bodies on the roster. And that is where North Mason lies as it tries to compete against the big boys in the OL.
This year, though, could be different for the Bulldogs. Coach Jeff Bevers says his team will be two-deep along the offensive line, and as football people know that is where it all starts for a good football team.
Still, it is tough to be a coach for a team that is always searching the hallways for more bodies to play what is a tough sport. So Bevers, who played football in Oklahoma where toughness is almost a way of life, and then went on the Rodeo circuit for a dozen years as a bulldogger, has brought what he knows about toughness to the program.
And that has helped.
“We have just mean, tough kids,” says Bevers. “That is the one thing I can say about them. They play hard and give everything they got.”
One of those tough guys is returning OL first team offensive lineman Chase Davis. He is a 220-pound senior who this year will again play left tackle for the Bulldogs. He is about 5-foot-11 and looks like he could be a rodeo bulldogger.
“He’s not a big giant kid, but just one of those kids who is really good,” says Bevers. “He will hunt you up and put you on your back.”
Putting people on their back has been an obsession for Davis, son of Matt and Pam Davis. That’s because he is a two-sport guy who wrestled for the Bulldogs in the winter season. He has gone to state at 195 pounds both of the last two seasons, doing so despite playing football and wrestling with a bum shoulder since his freshman year.
“I dislocated it my freshman year going for a tackle,” says Davis. “I went in on the wrong angle. I learned my lesson there.”
It finally gave away while losingh is first match in February at Mat Classic in the Tacoma Dome.
“It’s been a recurring injury,” says Davis. “It hadn’t occurred all season until the guy (Nick Lund of W.F. West) switched on me and it popped out of place in the middle of the match.”
Davis lost by injury default, but to show you how tough he is he pinned Jason Glenn of Ellensburg in his next match before falling to Steilacoom’s Jordan Leech in his third match.
He then had surgery in March and in late July was finally cleared by his doctor to resume full athletic activities.
Last year, Davis played a little linebacker, but Bevers is thinking this season he will throw the toughest of the tough in at nose guard where he can wreck havoc, attract double teams and free up his Bulldog buddies to go on their own hunt.
“He likes to put people on their back,” says Bevers. “Of course, they all like it. That is the cool thing.”
Davis says, “Knocking somebody on their back is one of the best feelings in the world. We call the offensive line the IHOP, the International House of Pancakes. Last year Franz Schonberg and me were the IHOP leaders. He was left guard and I was left tackle.
“We try to get the young guys to understand what this is all about, why we like this so much. We tell them if you knock somebody on their back, it takes them out of the play.”
When you are limited as the Bulldogs have been along the offensive line, being coached up to be tougher than their opponents is not only necessary, it is almost imperative in order for them to compete in the OL.
So it has become a way of life in football practice – get tough, become an IHOP member.
“The offensive linemen have a lot of pride in their pancakes,” says Bevers, “because what better motivation then to strive to get them. It’s great competition; they are all trying to beat each other.”
The leader, of course, is Davis.
“He is a heck of a leader for us,” says Bevers.
Davis, who carries a 3.0 grade-point average and plans on going into the military service once he graduates, looks at being the underdog school as a challenge to overcome.
“It motivates us to be in better shape, be tougher than the other teams, and work at being the best at our position,” he says. “We have to work harder.”
If Davis’ passion to be the best in the league at his position gets him noticed by a school, he would not pass up the opportunity to play football in college. But for now he’s intent on joining the Navy or the Army and maybe become an underwater welder.
An underwater welder?
“Yeah,” says Davis, “I hear they make a lot of money.”
First things first, though. There is that thing called football to take care of. And there are all the pancakes to be made.
