BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU baseball assistant coach Will Davis will become the head coach of the Lamar University baseball program following the conclusion of the 2016 season, Lamar Director of Athletics Jason Henderson announced on Friday.
Davis’ era as head coach will begin following the retirement of Lamar’s legendary head coach Jim Gilligan, who announced in September that the 2016 season would be his last at the helm of the Cardinals program.
Details of exactly when Davis will join the Lamar program are yet to be determined.
Davis, 31, an LSU catcher from 2004-07, has enjoyed tremendous success as a member of the Tigers’ coaching staff since 2008. He has helped lead LSU to the 2009 NCAA Championship, four College World Series appearances, three Southeastern Conference championships, five SEC Western Division titles and five SEC Tournament crowns.
“I am honored and thankful to be named the next head baseball coach at Lamar University,” Davis said. “When Jason called me to tell me the wonderful news, I couldn’t help but think how blessed and lucky I am. Today is the day I have dreamed about ever since I was a young boy watching my dad impact young men’s lives in the dugout as a head coach at a Division I university.”
His father, Randy Davis, was an LSU assistant coach under Skip Bertman from 1988-90 and later worked as the head coach at Louisiana Tech.
“I am so happy for Will to have received this tremendous opportunity,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri, “and he is ready for it. To have the challenge of following in the footsteps of one of the giants of college baseball, Jim Gilligan, is a great honor and responsibility that Will Davis embrace. Will has been an integral part of our staff since I arrived at LSU nine-and-a-half years ago. In fact, I literally have not coached a game at LSU without Will by my side in the dugout. I have watched him grow as a coach and have no doubt he will prove to be a great selection by Lamar University.”
“Coaching at LSU the past nine years has been a dream come true and I’ve enjoyed every second of it,” Davis said. “The LSU baseball program is so important to so many people that it makes every single decision that we make as coaches so important. I feel that coaching in an environment like this, where so much is expected of you, has really helped me develop as a coach and prepared me to handle all different types of situations as I move forward in my career.”
Davis worked as LSU third-base coach while tutoring the catchers and outfielders defensively, and he assisted in the development of the LSU position players. While coaching the Tiger outfielders since 2009, Davis has consistently engineered one of the nation’s top defensive units. His outfielders were routinely featured on ESPN’s top plays, and the 2013 LSU outfield committed just one error in 68 games.
Davis has been a designated recruiter at LSU since the summer of 2011, helping to attract Top 10 recruiting classes to Baton Rouge. Along with his on-field duties, he has been in charge of the LSU Baseball camps and the Coaches Committee booster club. He is the direct liaison to the LSU Baseball alumni, and he has supervised all summer baseball placement for the LSU players.
“With each passing year he was given more and more responsibility, and he handled every task with amazing competence,” Mainieri said. “Will is an extremely intelligent baseball man. He knows the game and, having grown up his whole life around the sport in a coaching family, he is well prepared for this next chapter in his career. He loves the players and they love him because he will get in the trenches and work like crazy with them.”
Davis, who has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at LSU, is married to the former Danielle Hall of Bogalusa, La.
“He has been a loyal confidant of mine for the better part of a decade and I will always be in debt to him for his unequivocal dedication to the LSU Baseball program and to me personally,” Mainieri said. “I couldn’t be more happy for Will and Danielle as they embark on this journey in their lives.”
Davis becomes the third former LSU player and coach to become a head coach in the Southland Conference, joining Justin Hill (McNeese State) and Blake Dean (New Orleans).
Davis is the ninth assistant coach to work under Mainieri and become a head coach at the collegiate level, including four during Mainieri’s LSU tenure – Terry Rooney (Central Florida), Cliff Godwin (East Carolina), Dean (New Orleans) and Davis (Lamar).
