On the afternoon of March 9, 2019, Ryan Davidson sat in the Charleston Coliseum and watched as Wyoming East took a 17-3 lead in the first quarter of the Class AA state championship game.
To most, the game seemed in hand for the Lady Warriors. Celebrations had already begun amongst some as a talented senior class seemed well on its way to its second state championship.
Davidson, now in his first year as the head coach at East, watched as the Lady Warriors crashed and burned. For the second time in a many years East lost a state championship as fatigue set in. The wear down was evident. After shooting 55 percent in the first quarter East crashed in the second, shooting 10 percent (1 of 10) and bottomed out in the fourth quarter where it shot seven percent (1 of 14) from the floor.
Davidson diagnosed the problem – the Lady Warriors had failed to build depth throughout the season.
It showed in that 2019 title game as four of East’s starters played all 32 minutes. The fifth one, Katie Daniels, played 30 minutes. Only one bench player entered the game for East and she played just two minutes.
Meanwhile the Polar Bears had eight players register at least four minutes. Seven of them played at least 10 minutes and as a team the Polar Bears never shot below 30 percent from the field after the first quarter.
East’s top two reserves that season were freshmen that played sparingly and the 20-game slate to work through the growing pains was punted to the next year. The toll of that decision was a loss in that title game and little experience to build upon in the following season with four of those five starters lost to graduation.
East got better as the 2019-20 season rolled along but ultimately lost in the sectional championship to an experienced, senior-laden Westside team. The story was the same the following week when a veteran-led PikeView team ended East’s season.
Davidson, who coached many of the kids that came through the program from 2015-2019, decided to get involved and joined the staff.
In his first year as an assistant to head coach Angie Boninesgna, East regularly played eight players with two sophomores and a freshman coming off the bench. It built much-needed depth and culminated in a championship season. Over the next two years the Lady Warriors made runs to Charleston, capping a title run in 2023 but depth, development and consistency with rotations were areas Davidson wanted to focus on.
In his first season at the helm, he’s done just that. He’s started six different players this season around stars Maddie Clark and Cadee Blackburn. And they weren’t just one-off starts. Charleigh Price, Gabby Cameron, Abi Baker, McKenna Price, Alivia Monroe and Kyndal Lusk have all started numerous games throughout the season in hopes of developing them.
That was always the plan.
“If they don’t believe in it, then it doesn’t have a chance,” Davidson said. “We kind of sold them early on the fact that everybody’s gonna get a chance to start. You’ll get a chance to prove yourself on the floor. And if you go out and do the right thing, we’ll keep doing it. And if it doesn’t work, then we’ll change it. And they did the right thing and we’ve just been able to keep going with it. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
Boninsegna had her own philosophies that worked effectively as she was the head of a ship that won three championships and played for three more. Her style won a lot of games including the biggest ones.
But Davidson’s differs with a different talent pool.
He wanted to build depth and was willing to go through the growing pains of doing so. It didn’t cost the Lady Warriors, who enter the Class AA state tournament as the No. 1 seed. Davidson understands that letting players play through their mistakes in January is more important than throwing them into the fire in March.
But these opportunities aren’t given lightly. They’re given but players must work hard to keep them.
“I think that at the end of the day, every kid wants to play,” Davidson said. “They know, every day, they’re going to get a chance. I think in order to win consistently you have to have or at least develop depth and it comes early in the season. You can’t start midway through and you can’t start at the end. It has to start when conditioning and weightlifting do. I say, ‘Hey, you’re going to play so this is why you have to do what we’re doing.’ And if I’m going to say that in the summer, if I’m going to say that early in the season then it’s on me to back it up. I expect them to do what they say. So I have to be willing to do the same thing. So when I look at them and say you do the right thing, you’re gonna play, they’ve gotta play.”
For the players the consistency has helped.
Alivia Monroe, a junior, has played sporadically since her freshman year. There were games early in her career where she played extended minutes and then rarely registered playing time in the following weeks.
“I think it’s made me have a whole lot more confidence in myself, knowing that (Davidson) is willing to put me out there and prove to him that I’m able to be out there and play with them,” Monroe said. “The last two years made me kind of not have faith in myself. And I didn’t have a lot of confidence.”
Chalerigh Price, one of three seniors on the team, echoed Monroe’s sentiments. A physically gifted player, Price’s calling card has always been defense and her ability to switch and guard several different positions. She’s struggled on the offensive end throughout her career but Davidson doesn’t mind missed shots or turnovers because he’s seen growth in his senior.
That belief is part of the reason Price has grown into a key rotational piece that’s minimized her mistakes.
“Last year, if we would make one mistake, we got pulled,” Price said. “This year, he’ll just talk to us and be like, ‘Hey, next time just do better.’ Sometimes he’ll still pull us if it’s really bad but we know he trusts us.”
Finding the balance and playing different starting lineups hasn’t hurt team chemistry either. Usually Monroe, Cameron and Baker start together and when they don’t Lusk and the Price sisters do. When subs come in those six are subbed in for each other unless foul trouble or flow of the game dictates otherwise.
“Ryan told us how it was gonna be at the beginning of the year,” Monroe said. “He told us how he’s going to go back and forth every game and he’s a smart person so I just had faith in him.”
“I think it helps us a lot because we get to rotate when we don’t start,” Price said. “So they might start one game, we might start one game you never know. But we all play usually the same amount of time so it doesn’t really matter.”
Even when there are struggles, Davidson is comfortable letting his players play through them. Lusk shot 1 of 14 from the floor against Mingo Central in the Region3 co-final and 1 of 8 just 18 days earlier against Chapmanville. East won both of those games handily allowing Davidson the margins but he repeatedly encouraged Lusk to shoot the ball.
“It’s not easy but I think it does go back to I want to be a man of my word,” Davidson said. “So if I tell a kid they’re gonna get the opportunity how can I look at somebody in the face and say that but then not back it up? If I’m I have any integrity at all, then I’ve got to support that kid, because it’s bigger than this. They’re gonna go through a lot of hard things in life. And there’s probably not going to be somebody there going, ‘Hey, it’s okay.’ So let’s build that foundation now. And I believe fully that those kids are going to have really big games when we need it just because of the trust level we have.”
Davidson’s philosophy will be tested this week in Charleston.
Class AA has rotated into the slot that plays three straight days in the state tournament this year, testing players physically in ways they haven’t been before.
The Lady Warriors are ready for that storm.
“I think because of how our rotation is it gives us plenty of time to rest and save our legs,” Monroe said. “Three days, if I don’t need to be out there then he’s not gonna put me out there to make me tired or end up injured. So I feel like it’ll be good.”
Wyoming East will open state tournament play Thursday against No. 8 Charleston Catholic.
