Bio

Steve Davis grew up in Southeast Kansas and graduated from Iola High School in 1977, where he was a member of the 1976 Class 3 State Championship track team. He continued his education and cross country/track career at Allen County Community College (1977-79) and the College of the Ozarks (1979-82), after which Coach Davis received his first teaching/coaching position at the Viburnum C-4 School District in 1985.  While at Viburnum, Coach Davis helped guide the 1986 cross country team to the school’s first ever state championship. 

In 1990, Coach Davis was hired at Potosi R-3 where he taught and coached for 25 years until his retirement in 2015. 

While at Potosi, Davis helped guide the cross country and track teams to 15 state trophies, which included 7 state titles in cross country and 2 State titles in track.  Coach Davis’ athletes earned over 100 All-State performances in the two sports, highlighted by 21 individual and 4 relay team State Champions.  The 2006 Potosi cross country team still holds the State record for the lowest boys’ team score at the Missouri State Meet for Class 3 with 16 points.  That same team is still the only Missouri cross country team to earn the right to compete at the Nike National Cross-Country Meet where they placed 8th in the nation.  The national success of the Potosi cross country team lead to an invitation to the “Emerging Elite” Coaches Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, which Davis attended in 2008 In addition to receiving several Missouri, National Federation, and J-98 Dream Team Coach of the Year awards, Davis earned his Master’s Degree in Education from Southwest Baptist University in 1999, and also obtained his Level 1 coaching certification from the USATF Coaches Association in 2008. Coach Davis was inducted into the Missouri Cross Country and Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009, the Potosi R-3 School District Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2021 as part of the Potosi men’s cross-country program.

The cross country and track and field programs were added at Mineral Area College in 2018, with Davis becoming the head coach for both sports. So far during his coaching tenure at Mineral Area, Davis has coached the men’s cross-country teams to NJCAA Division III Region XVI titles in 2019,2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, with the men’s squad also bringing home the NJCAA Division III National Championship first place trophies in ‘19 and ‘20, National Runner-Up finishes in ‘21 and ‘22, and a third-place finish in 2023. The Lady Cardinals cross country teams have been Region XVI Champions in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and Runner-Up in 2023, as well as finishing 4th at the National meet as a team in ‘21, Runner-up in ‘22, and 3rd place in 2023.  Individually at the National level, 21 MAC XC athletes have earned All American status since the 2019 season, including 2020 Men’s XC Individual National Champion Donovan Denslow.  Both MAC track and field teams were Region XVI Champions in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with the women’s team finishing Runner-Up in 2021 and 3rd in 2022 at the NJCAA Division III National Meet, while the men were 3rd in 2021 and Runner-Up in both 2022 and 2023.  27 Mineral Area track and field athletes have achieved All-American honors since 2019, which includes 12 individual National Champions.  Academically, over 40 MAC XC/Track athletes have been named Academic All-Americans since the start of the programs in 2018, including winners of the Mineral Area College Outstanding Student in Athletics Award-Samuel Toppins for the 2019-2020 school year, Haley Hernandez for the 2021-2022 year and Laine Cottrell for 2022-2023. The women’s track and field teams were named NJCAA “Academic Team of the Year” for both the 2022 and 2023 seasons, with the men’s track team winning the same award in 2023.   Davis was named the NJCAA Division III Cross Country Men’s National Coach of the Year in both 2019 and 2020, as well as the Central Region Men’s Coach of the Year in 2020 for Cross Country and Central Region Men’s Coach of the Year for Track and Field in 2022 and 2023.

Coach Davis and his wife Debbie were married in 1984 and raised 2 sons, Kyle and Kurtis, who have both followed in their parents’ footsteps in the teaching and coaching professions.