360-262 Overall Record • 170-115 SLC Record • 3 SLC Titles
4 SLC ERA Titles • Averaging 31 wins per year • 23 All-SLC Pitchers
3 Freshman All-American pitchers • 15 Players drafted (9 pitchers)
2001 SLC Pitcher of the Year • 2004 Academic All-American
2005 SLC Player of the Year • 2010 SLC Student Athlete of the Year
2011 F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship recipient
J.P. Davis will enter his fifth season as the skipper of the Northwestern State Demons and is focused on bringing the team back to the top of the Southland Conference - a place it dominated for so long in the 1990s and 2000s.
Davis, who will continue to oversee the pitching coach duties, has helped NSU win three conference championships while coaching 20 All-SLC pitchers and developing 15 Major League Draft picks since 2001.
In his first year at the helm, he guided the Demons to their best conference record (17-12) since the 2005 team finished 22-5. His team also held the top spot in the East Division standings for much of the season before finishing second.
And in 2010, he posted his first overall winning season (36-21) while finishing 22-10 in league play for a second place finish - just one-half game from bringing home the school’s 10th SLC title.
The 2010 campaign was filled with accomplishments, both as a team and individual.
The Demons broke or tied six team records - batting average (.322), hits (646), total bases (939), strikeouts thrown (459), batters struckout in a game (21 vs. Sam Houston State on April 1), and tied a record with 22 league wins.
There were also eight individual game, season, and career records snapped or tied - hitting streak (Eric DeBlanc, 28), stolen bases (Chase Lyles, 34), saves (Chad Sheppard, tied with 10), pickoffs (Aaron Munoz, 13), stolen bases in a game (Lyles, 4 vs. UTA on March 27), sacrifice flies in a career (Lyles tied with 12), saves in a career (Sheppard, 20), and strikeouts thrown (Heath Hennigan with 255).
Davis succeeded Mitch Gaspard, head coach from 2002-07, who resigned in July of 2007 to become the No. 1 assistant to former NSU head coach Jim Wells at the University of Alabama. Gaspard has since been promoted to head coach for the Crimson Tide.
Davis stepped into a charmed spot in college baseball. His immediate predecessors in the Demons’ dugout have carved prominent identities in the game. Wells coached the Demons from 1990-94 before taking the Alabama job and was succeeded by Dave Van Horn, who headed NSU’s program from 1995-97 before going to Nebraska and then to his alma mater, Arkansas. John Cohen took over in 1998 and departed four seasons later, and is the head coach at Kentucky.
Wells, Van Horn and Cohen all have won national coach of the year honors in their current positions after each led the Demons to at least two Southland Conference titles. Gaspard, who turned down at least two head coaching offers elsewhere during his six seasons with the Demons, guided NSU to SLC titles in 2002 and 2005 and was strongly considered for head coaching posts at Oklahoma and Auburn while at NSU.
Since Wells arrived and revitalized Northwestern’s program, the Demons have won nine of the last 17 SLC championships with 654 wins, a .602 winning percentage, and six 40-win seasons since 1990, best by any conference team.
Davis, 39, was hired by Cohen prior to the 2001 season in which Northwestern won the SLC title with a 38-17 mark. Gaspard retained him after Cohen’s departure following the 2001 season, and the Demons immediately won another SLC title. The third Southland crown won in his tenure came in 2005, when NSU set a league marks with 22 wins and an .815 winning percentage in league play (22-5) and a record six-game margin in the league standings.
“There is no doubt in my mind that J.P. has the baseball knowledge and background to be the next successful head baseball coach at Northwestern State, said Director of Athletics Greg Burke of his hiring. “He truly has played a major role in the high level of success achieved by NSU baseball over the past seven years. In addition, he knows the Demon baseball program, as well as our university and community, very well and will certainly utilize that knowledge to his advantage.
“I was impressed with J.P.’s perspective regarding NSU’s baseball program, both in terms of what has happened in the past and in terms of the vision he has for the future. He will work with great passion, an intangible which is always a positive. In fact, I have met very few individuals who were as eager to ‘hit the ground running’ as a new head coach than J.P.
“The transition from assistant coach to head coach, as always, will be an adjustment but in J.P.’s case, his familiarity with NSU will lessen that adjustment.”
Gaspard, who teamed with Davis to produce a Top 40-ranked recruiting class at Northwestern in 2006, said the new head coach earned the opportunity.
“During our six years together, J.P. has definitely been one of the more respected assistants in the Southland Conference as both a pitching coach and as a recruiter. We worked hand-in-hand through the championships and other successful moments enjoyed by the NSU baseball program,” said Gaspard.
Four times, in 2002 (No. 23), 2003 (35th), 2005 (No. 30), 2010 (No. 30) Northwestern has earned rankings in national collegiate polls with Davis handling the pitching staff. The Demons ranked 17th nationally in earned run average (3.85) and led the SLC in his first season, 2001, and a year later ranked 12th nationally and tops in the league with a 3.54 ERA. NSU also led the SLC in ERA in 2005 (3.99).
Fourteen school pitching marks have fallen under Davis’ tutelage while NSU compiled a 338-230 (.595) overall record, including a 159-94 (.628) mark in the Southland. He recruited 26 All-SLC players, including 13 pitchers - notably 2002 SLC Pitcher of the Year O.J. King and 2005 SLC Player of the Year Blake Jones.
One of his craftiest pitchers, left-hander Zach Sanches (2001-03), was the winning pitcher over third-ranked LSU as a sophomore.
“Coach D’ was one of the main reasons I was successful at NSU. I had a terrible fall my first year but he stuck with me and turned my career around,” said Sanchez, now district sales manager for Association Member Benefits Advisors. “He is tenacious, he’s a winner, and he gets the most out of you.”
Carl Makowsky, who beat No. 21 Arkansas in 2001, his junior year, said: “‘Coach D’ understands the entire game, not just the pitching aspect. Any time I was fundamentally unsound, he would pick up what I was doing wrong. He always got the best out of our pitching staff and that will carry over to the entire team as head coach.”
One of his recent pupils was Daniel Lonsberry, a star on the 2005 team which reached the NCAA Tournament.
“‘Coach D’ is an extremely hard worker and a great recruiter. He always had a way of going out and finding the answer to a problem. He turned my career around and that has given me the chance to play professional baseball,” said Lonsberry.
Davis came to NSU from Neosho County (Kan.) Community College, where he helped build the 1999 Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division Sub-Regional championship team. In four seasons at Neosho, Davis produced 18 all-conference players, including one All-American, and sent 39 student-athletes forward to four-year institutions.
Under his direction, Neosho pitchers broke 18 of 31 school record, while his bullpen posted a 3.58 ERA.
He also served as an associate scout in the Cleveland Indians organization.
Davis and his wife, Stephanie, were married last July.
