Davis resigns as head baseball coach, teacher after 36 years

Jarrod Schoenecker photo
Bruce Davis stands at Memorial Baseball Field, a place where he has spent the last 36 years coaching high school baseball. You could say his resignation as head coach is the equivelent to him getting his "wings."
Bruce Davis, a jovial man, decided a few weeks ago to resign as head baseball coach for Tri-City United High School after 37 years in the position.
“I really don’t have any reasons to retire. I still love coaching. Last spring was as much fun coaching as any season,” said Davis.
Davis also hung up his hat as a teacher for TCU, starting in the fall of 1987 of the then Montgomery-Lonsdale Schools. He started teaching in Montgomery as a fourth grade teacher, spent one year as a third grade teacher, and the rest of his career as a sixth grade teacher.
Davis’ start in coaching and teaching came at an early age. When he was 13 years old, he took up little league summer baseball in his hometown of Medford. His father was a teacher and a coach at Medford Public Schools, where his father coached seventh and eighth grade football and basketball.
Elementary school basketball was Davis’ first coaching experience when he was in the 10th grade.
He graduated from Medford in 1982, and then went to school at Mankato State University to pursue a degree in education. Part of his college experience required him to take a coaching class, which also required him to be a coach on a team. Leaning on his hometown, he coached football at Medford High School in the fall of 1985.
When Davis graduated from college in the fall of 1986, he was offered a head coach position at Claremont High School for the 1986-87 school year. “I had just graduated from college, and they needed a head basketball coach. I figured it would be good on a resume,” said Davis. The head baseball coach from Claremont wanted to retire and asked him if he could use the money and was interested in coaching baseball. He agreed and was their head baseball coach in the spring of 1987.
“The thing that changed a lot is that they would interview people that would coach that would also be a good teacher,” said Davis. “Back then, about 50% of the teachers were also coaching something.”
He applied to work at Montgomery-Lonsdale Schools and was hired in the fall of 1987 as a fourth grade teacher. He was also asked and hired in that same fall to be head coach for high school baseball in the spring. “Montgomery-Lonsdale was the first school to offer me a job. So, I took it and the rest is history,” Davis said.
One of the reasons Davis said he got into coaching in the first place was because “you can’t play the game forever, so coaching was a good way to stay in the game.” According to Davis, “It was a job that did not feel like a job.”
He feels lucky to have coached so many great players and work with so many great assistant coaches over the years. Davis also says that his wife of 36 years, Charlotte, has been very supportive of his career and coaching. “Without her support all of these years, it would have not been possible,” said Davis.
He couldn’t pin down a single moment that was memorable by itself. “We won many games that were memorable, and we lost some games that stick with you for many years also,” Davis said. “Winning the state championship in 1999 was very special, and getting to the state championship game in 2000 will always be special memories.”
One of the craziest things he says he saw as coach was ...
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...may not be done coaching completely though. “Well, I didn’t retire, just resigned. I think once it comes spring, if I get a phone call, it would be hard to turn something down.”
Davis is in the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame and the Medford High School Hall of Fame. During his career he has had 444 career wins, which is in the top 15 in the history of the Minnesota High School Baseball Coaches victories.