Bradley Davis, the head coach of women’s basketball at the University of Pacific sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast and gives us insight into his journey as a basketball coach. During our interview, Bradley tells us about how he got his start in coaching basketball, his experience growing up overseas, and shares why it’s important to surround yourself with people that encourage a drive to succeed and a strong work ethic.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How this past season went for University of Pacific Women’s Basketball team (0:18)

• How Coach Davis got into coaching (1:10)

• Bradley’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (5:38)

• One thing that no one knows about Bradley (7:01)

• Bradley’s favorite travel experience (8:15)

University of the Pacific’s Past Women’s 2019-2020 Basketball Season

Shianne: So you're in the middle of your season, can you tell us how it's going? I know you're probably getting to the end of it, but how's it going for you guys?

Bradley Davis: So far it's going, I would use the word well. It's been a season of adversity, a number of things on the floor, off the floor that we've had to deal with to continue to progress and proceed the way we have, I've been really proud of our kids. So there's still two weeks left in terms of games in season before we get to conference tournament play, and we're just hoping to get on a roll here.

Shianne: Yeah, that's awesome. And do you guys have a game tomorrow, right?

Bradley Davis: We do, against St. Mary's.

Shianne: Nice, well good luck with that.

Bradley Davis: Thank you, with them it's always an up and down affair and they can shoot the heck out of the three ball, and so we've got to defend that a little bit and see if we can stay with them.

How Coach Bradley Davis Got His Start in Coaching

Shianne: Yeah, so how did you get into coaching?

Bradley Davis: Coming out of college, honestly, I wanted to teach. And my direct career path, I would say was probably to be an English teacher at the high school level. I made a couple of decisions in order to try to get a position at a certain school in terms of student teaching. A couple of those decisions, one were volunteering in an English classroom and the other was trying to get involved in athletics. I played basketball during my high school years and continued to be a part of the women's scrimmage team at Cal, where I went to school. So once I got into coaching, I tried to volunteer assistant coach at the high school level and it ended up I was helping out the girl's basketball team. So for nine years I taught high school English and I coached high school basketball, and then I had an opportunity to come down to Pacific with a then head coach and good friend of mine, Lynn Roberts who is now at the University of Utah.

Shianne Oh cool. Did you always know you wanted to coach women's basketball or how did that come about?

Bradley Davis: No, I had no idea. I knew I wanted to be involved in coaching and I actually applied for a freshmen boys' job and was turned down. And walking out of that interview, the girls' varsity coach asked if I'd be willing to help out, he needed somebody as an assistant coach. And I went and watched practice because I was a little unsure if that's something I wanted to do. The team and the players that were on the team and the game itself, and started assistant coaching at the high school level. Did that for about six or seven years and then I had an opportunity to be the head coach at a different high school while I was still teaching at Chico High School and I had the opportunity to be a head coach at Durham High School, which is a bedroom community outside of Chico. Did that for two years and then came back to Chico High as the head coach and then was hired as an assistant down here at Pacific. So it was just kind of a path that made itself available to me at the time and I took it.

Coach Bradley Davis’s Favorite Travel Experience

Shianne: That's awesome. So we always like to talk about travel and how it plays a big role in your life as a coach. I mean, you guys are always traveling on the road and stuff, can you kind of share maybe some of your favorite experiences traveling with your team and your personal life, too?

Bradley Davis: Well, with the team... Actually I'll start with the personal life. My stepfather's a, or was he retired now, a US diplomat, so my mother and I had moved to Kinshasa, Zaire, which is in central Africa, when I was four going on five. And from there she met my stepfather to be and we ended up traveling every two or three years. So I grew up overseas for the most part, living in Kinshasa that year, Cape Town, South Africa and Manama, Bahrain and then Washington DC for a little bit. And then most of my high school was in Geneva, Switzerland. So before I made it out to Northern California at Berkeley, I really had grown up overseas and with the exception of a small stint in Washington, DC. So an international experience and those experiences were something that I want our team to be able to gain from. I think travel is the best educator you can have in many respects.

So when we had the opportunity four years ago, and even eight years ago when I was an assistant, to take our team on a foreign tour and when I was an assistant, we went to France and four years ago we went to Italy with the team for 10 days. And we played four games but really it's more about the experience, the history that you're going to see in different places and the culture that you're going to experience in different places I just think is extra valuable for our players and opportunities that they have in college. If they were just a regular student, not a student athlete, they could go do a study abroad for a semester, but you can't just bail on the team halfway through the season and do that. So for us to be able to give them at least this opportunity to travel and gain those different perspectives that I talked about, I think is just important and super powerful.

Shianne: Yeah, and that's so cool that you were able to kind of experience that firsthand as you grew up all around the world. And then you were seeing the value in that and you're like, "I want my team to be able to experience these things for themselves too."

Coach Bradley Davis’s Advice to College Athletes

Shianne: If you're an athlete wanting to play a team, whether it's for basketball, volleyball, whatever, what would your advice be for them? If they want to move up to the next level?

Bradley Davis: A lot of people are going to say talent and others are going to say academics, you have to focus in. Yes, obviously in order to be a student athlete you have to be a good athlete and a talented player and you have to be a good student and one who's driven academically as well. But the truth, I think in addition to those two things, you have to be driven to succeed in it. It takes a little bit something different to succeed at the division one level over a high school level or even the division two level over the high school. There's a drive to compete and have that work ethic in order to get to that point. So I think that work ethic and that drive, you have to kind of at the high school level really foster and kind of fan the flames when you're 13 to 18, 14 to 18 years old and surrounding yourself with people that want to encourage that drive and that work ethic rather than those that discourage.

A Lesser-Known Fact About Coach Bradley Davis

Shianne: Yeah, I like that. I think that's great advice. One thing I like to ask everyone, to kind of put you on the spot, but what is one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us?

Bradley Davis: Well, I've talked about, lots of times... Obviously I have a bio that's on the website and so people know where I grew up. But typically when you meet somebody they're unaware that... A lot of times the first thing you ask people when you meet people, "Where are you from?" And for me that's a complicated question.

Shianne: Yeah, you're like, "Uh, everywhere."

Bradley Davis: That's right. And it's more complicated answer, I should say, because you have to kind of explain it, so that's one thing. In terms of just typically in athletics, we're all about the gear and the nice Nike shoes and etc. And I used to be that way, infatuated is probably a little strong, but love great shoes, whether they're dress shoes or nice shoes. But I think I realized 10 years or so ago, I hate wearing shoes as soon as I get and the shoes come off and I want to be barefoot all the time. If I could live in flip flops, I probably would. So on the silly side, that's it. And on the more, I don't know, mature side, I guess it's just the way I grew up.

Shianne: No, that's awesome. I mean I guess you can't really coach barefoot can you?

Bradley Davis: True, true that, they won't... We have pink games and I think on the men's side, they have the sneaker games for cancer, I'm waiting for the barefoot games to come out.

Shianne: Yeah, maybe you can work on that and then have that come out on your team like, "We're doing barefoot." That's funny. Of all those places you've been to that you mentioned or grew up in, what were some of your favorites?

Bradley Davis: I think I was at the, and this is a question I get a lot actually, I think I was at the right places at the right times in my life. When I was young and growing up in Kinshasa, Zaire, we didn't have much in terms of the entertainment things and TV and radio and telephone in the house and that kind of thing. But you don't need it when you're age five to nine or 10, you just go play, you figure things out and you have an imagination and it can be adventurous. And then when I was a little bit older, we were in Cape town, South Africa and that was during the Heart of Apartheid and there were some struggles, but I was old enough to know what was going on and old enough to realize that there are, even in a system that is not equal, you can find great people and make connections with great people that helps to promote change and helps to promote understanding of one another. And I did that, made some wonderful friends of all backgrounds, even in a system of apartheid.

And then we moved to the Middle East for a little bit. And honestly, that was the one place I probably didn't want to move to because you see what's on the news and reports of escorts and conflict and this and you go somewhere and you realize that what you see on the news is such a small percentage of what actually happens. And that there are hundreds of thousands of millions of people living in all of the places that live a normal everyday life and have love interests and friends and things they want to go do and all of that. But you just don't see and you kind of get caught up in stereotyping certain places or certain areas and again, but once you get there, you meet wonderful people and you experience a different culture and you gain a true understanding of something, not just what's seen in the media.

And then honestly, I go to Geneva, Switzerland and you're right there in the midst of the United Nations and cultures from all over the place. And you're in Europe where there's a little bit more freedom for somebody who's 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old, than there is in the US and you learn to kind of appreciate those freedoms. And I was playing basketball, I was able to travel all around Europe and see quite a bit of different things. And so I just think I was in the perfect place at perfect time in my life and really gained a lot.

Shianne: Yeah, wow I feel like you just had a really cool journey of kind of how you grew up and even how you became a coach. It was just like you probably didn't really realize your path, but it kind of just happened. And I think that's awesome.

Bradley Davis: I think that's been kind of the key, there's a lot of people who ask advice on, how do you get into coaching and how do you do this, how do you advance in coaching? And I always just think the true secret is to do the best job you can at the job that you have and certain pathways will open up for you.

What’s Next for Coach Bradley Davis and the University of Pacific Women’s Basketball Team

Shianne: What would you say is your next adventure or what are you most excited about, I mean with the last couple of games you have left as you're ending and wrapping up the season?

Bradley Davis: We're dealing with some adversity right now with some injuries as we approach the end of season. And the last few weeks of the season before you on the conference play are important in terms of positioning yourself for the conference tournament. So we're going to have different players that have to step up into different leadership roles and different production roles and I'm excited for the opportunity for some of those players and to see how that happens over the next few games.

Follow University of Pacific Basketball

• University of Pacific Women’s Basketball Team Facebook

Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions

Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle