Davis’ Football Success Is No Tall Tale

If you’re looking for Ryan Davis on the football field, look fast--and bring a magnifying glass.

At 5 feet 8, 165 pounds, the San Clemente High running back knows not to stay in one place too long, especially if he’s carrying the ball. Not with all those 250-pound defenders bearing down on him.

But don’t think Davis will crumple like paper the first time he’s knocked down.

“I’ll tell you how tough he is,” San Clemente Coach Mark McElroy said. “Last summer before the season started he had a slightly dislocated shoulder. He never told anyone, and never missed a day of practice.

“Finally about the fourth week of the season we saw him holding his arm at a unique angle. . . . We finally got him some custom-fitted shoulder pads, which helped.”

Despite the injury, Davis rushed for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns last season. He fumbled only once in 174 carries.

Davis realizes he was easier to hide last season. Opponents had enough to do to stop quarterback Chris Boden, who set single-season school records in yards (2,592) and touchdown passes (22); and receiver Trevor Insley, who caught 64 passes for 1,086 yards and graduated with nearly every school receiving record.

El Toro Coach Mike Milner, whose fifth-ranked team plays San Clemente tonight at Trabuco Hills High, watched Davis gain 162 yards and score a four-yard touchdown run last season in the Tritons’ 27-15 victory over the eventual Southern Section Division V champions. “We were very cognizant of his presence before, during and after the game,” Milner said.

“He’s a little guy who is real quick and elusive. He has great vision in open field. He’s like our Merle Sango, in that it’s hard to get direct hit on either.”

McElroy thought he saw something in Davis when he came out for the freshman track team he was coaching at the time.

“With Ryan, desire is most the important thing,” McElroy said. “I stuck him on the mile relay as a ninth-grader. You could see the desire to compete on his face. I knew then he would be a special player.”

But even McElroy was surprised at the lengths Davis would go to.

“Last year, when before we weighed the players, Ryan told me his weight was 150,” McElroy said. “It was actually 145. But he didn’t want to disappoint me, so he puts a five-pound weight in his pants before he gets on the scale.

“I didn’t find out about that until the end of the season.”

It’s not surprising that Davis would be big on speed. After graduating from San Clemente this spring, he hopes to attend the U.S. Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy. He would like to become a jet pilot.

“Why flying? I want to do something for a career that I would always enjoy doing. I want to go out and be happy every day, not just drag myself to work,” Davis said. “That’s something that would be exciting for the rest of my life. I haven’t done any flying before, but it would be my No. 1 choice.”

Dreams can wait, however. Davis wants to see if San Clemente, which begins the season ranked sixth in the county, can be as good as it was last season when it tied for the South Coast League championship. Among its eight victories was one against then top-ranked Mater Dei, which ended the Monarchs’ 21-game winning streak.

“That was a big team victory,” Davis said. “We had come off the loss to Capo Valley and were hungry. If we didn’t have the confidence we could beat anybody, we did after the Mater Dei game.

“We go into every game not too overconfident or too under-confident. We’ve done pretty well against them the past four years and we expect to do the same this year. We’re not intimidated by them winning the Division V championship. We’re aware they are very good.”

This summer, Davis was up to his old tricks again. He was troubled by a bad ankle, and hid it from the coaches because he was fearful of missing practice.

“Now I want to make sure he’s [being truthful] if something is bothering him,” McElroy said.

And how does McElroy know Davis will be honest with him?

“Because he made a commitment to me that he will.”