4A/3A state basketball notebook: Injured O'Dea guard now 'Coach Bud'
TACOMA, Wash. - After a big summer, O'Dea's Noel "Bud" Davis was set to be one of the breakout stars of Washington high school basketball this winter.
And then the unthinkable happened - the Fighting Irish senior guard suffered a serious knee injury on the third day of tryouts.
O'Dea lost Bud Davis - the player - for the rest of the season
But the team gained "Coach Bud."
As the WIAA Class 4A and 3A basketball championships opened Wednesday in the Tacoma Dome, many in the grandstands for the 9 a.m. games were essentially still in watch-like-zombie mode.
Not Davis, who was busy scribbling scouting notes watching the Garfield-Arlington game - O'Dea's next opponent.
Photo by Todd Milles
"Writing down who likes o shoot, where they shoot, are they playing gaps on defense - are they a left-side or right-side shooter," said Davis, who can write as fast as he can dribble.
After suffering the injury in November, Davis admitted that first week he wasn't sure if he "ever wanted to play basketball anymore."
But quickly, the sentiment shifted to being all-in helping out his "brothers."
Often, he gets up at 6 a.m. to work out some of his teammates. In the past month, O'Dea boys Jason Kerr has given Davis a segment of practice to instruct the team on his own.
"You could not ask for a better leader," Kerr said.
And every day now, somebody refers to Davis as "Coach Bud."
"Not sure how much they appreciate it," Davis said, "but I appreciate them."
