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PA Profile of
Phil Davis
By Todd Irwin
If you're an athlete, you know the dream. It comes and goes while your sleeping
or when your focus strays from the boring classroom lecture or from the computer
screen at work.
You dream of performing better than what you've done or what you're capable of
doing.
Penn State's Phil Davis has had that dream many times, especially since he
finished second at 197 in the NCAA Championships last season. He dreams of what
it would be like to win a national title.
"I'm a dreamer," Davis said. "I always feel like everything's within my reach."
Not many people who knew Davis when he was younger would have dreamed that he
would finish second at NCAAs and is the top-ranked 197-pounder entering the
2006-2007 season.
Davis, a Harrisburg High School graduate, didn't even start wrestling until he
and a buddy went to a practice after school when he was in the seventh grade. He
didn't that year, but he did the next and was better at it than the year before.
"When I first got into it, I didn't want my parents (Arbie and Joe) to go to the
matches. I didn't take it seriously," Davis said. "After eighth grade, I was
pretty good, and they were in love with it."
His family, including his two older brothers, Jeffrey and John, were all into
tennis. Phil lettered in tennis and cross country in high school.
He was named the captain of the wrestling team all four years at Harrisburg and
qualified for the PIAA Championships as a sophomore 189-pounder by placing third
at the Southcentral Regional Tournament.
It was in Hershey where Penn State coach Troy Sunderland first learned of Davis,
reading a Harrisburg Patriot-News story that told of how the future All-American
would take a bus to Penn State to work out and wrestle.
"I watched him and he had pretty good abilities,"
Sunderland said. "We talked to him. We really liked his mom, and it was a good
fit."
Davis lost to Upper Darby's eventual champion, Joel Edwards, 6-4, in the
semifinals, but he bounced back to take fourth. As a junior in 2002, he finished
second at the Southcentral Tournament, reached the PIAA semifinals and lost in
overtime, 7-5, to Northampton sophomore Jon Oplinger, who finished second that
year and went on to win two state titles.
His senior year, Davis took second at the regional tournament to Warwick's
eventual state runner-up Kyle Narkiewicz. He reached the state semis again,
where he dropped another OT decision, 9-7, to Northampton's eventual two-time
state champ Josh Haines. This time, Davis took fifth.
"I could have finished higher than fifth," Davis said, "but I sort of lost my
focus."
While he went 112-17 in his high school career, Davis didn't really become
serious about the sport until he got to Penn State. He was redshirted his
freshman year, but he went 16-3 in open tournaments and impressed his coach.
"He did work very hard his freshman season,"
Sunderland said. "He had that eagerness to learn. He's improved a lot on his
feet and he knows exactly what he wants to do on the mat. He has a lot of
heart."
He continued showing his improvement by beating out Edwards for the 197-pound
spot in 2004-05. Fans got to Davis' unorthodox, high-risk style of wrestling.
"He puts himself in some situations where you say 'OK, how's he going to come
out of this?' " Sunderland said. "Then he comes out on top and you say 'Yeah, I
knew that would happen.' "
In his first year as a starter, Davis went 37-10, tying Jim Martin's school
record for wins by a freshman and finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships.
He beat three higher seeded wrestlers at the NCAAs to take seventh.
Last year, he posted a 25-4 record and won a Big Ten title to qualify for the
NCAAs, where he opened with an 11-0 win over Drexel's Oplinger. But his run to
the finals was ended there by Oklahoma State's Jake Rosholt, 10-3, when Davis
gave up an early five-point move.
"It was pretty disappointing," Davis said. "It's very devastating," Sunderland
said. "He gave up a five-point move right off the bat. The match would have been
a lot different if he had not been in a hole. A lot of times he comes out on top
of those."
Over the summer, he was on a Big Ten All-Star team that competed in the Ukraine,
where he saw different styles and strong competition. When he came back, he
started on making the Nittany Lions better. The NCAA loss not only spurred him
on to get better personally, but to also become a team leader.
"I'm spending a lot more time with my younger teammates to build up the team,"
he said. "Before, I was a leader by example. Now, I think I've earned the
respect of everybody on the team."
"He did some things behind the scenes," Sunderland said. "He brought the
freshmen in and did some things on his own. I think he's bought into the
program. He gets instant respect from those who don't know him.
You appreciate what he's gone through. He likes to make it fun. But deep down he
wants to win."
That's exactly what Sunderland expects Davis to do a lot this season.
"We expect him to become a national champion,"
Sunderland said. "He's got some great competition at his weight, and some other
guys are moving up from 184. He's got a lot of work to do."
"I definitely expect the team to do a lot better this year," Davis said.
"Personally, I want to pick it up a notch. I want to finish first this year."
The above profile was printed in the
November 2006 issue of PWN.
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