Since 2000, Ben Davis’ boys track and field team has won three state championships and been runner-up on five other occasions.
Giants coach Mike Davidson, a former three-sport standout at Greenwood, achieved success on all-weather ovals long before he got to the westside of Indianapolis.
Davidson, a 1981 graduate, still holds Woodmen records in the 100- and 400-meter dashes with respective times of 10.9 and 49.92 seconds. The latter clocking was good for eighth place at the state meet his senior season.
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“A lot of it was just the hunger and desire to be able to be successful,” said Davidson, who finished his Greenwood athletic career with nine varsity letters, having also been part of the football and basketball teams. “My freshman year, coach (John) Irons put me in the 400, and I remember I how much pain I felt.
“The last 100 meters, I thought I was basically going to pass out.”
Davidson stuck with the 400 and the training necessary to remain a consistent first- or second-place finisher during meets. And though weight training wasn’t nearly as popular in the early 1980s as it is today, Davidson committed to a regimen, building his 6-foot-2 frame to a wiry 175 pounds.
“The 400 is an event where the harder you train and the harder you compete, the more success you’re going to have,” he said.
This philosophy served Davidson well after high school. He received a football scholarship to Butler and played that sport all four years, while also being part of the Bulldogs’ men’s track and field team in the spring.
Davidson started his teaching and coaching careers at Carmel High School as a math teacher and assistant boys track coach from 1985-87 before returning to Greenwood for one year. While at his alma mater, Davidson helped coach varsity football, freshman boys basketball and boys track and field.
He moved on to Perry Meridian for one year, and took a job at Ben Davis in time for the start of the 1989-90 school year. Davidson became the Giants’ boys track and field coach the following season, and he is now in his 30th year at the helm there.
Ben Davis picked up its first runner-up finish at the 2000 state meet, and repeated the accomplishment in 2002 and 2007. The following season, Davidson and his program began a run of three consecutive team titles at state. More recently, the Giants placed second at state in 2015 and 2016.
Davidson’s tenure also includes five Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championships and seven wins at the Marion County meet.
He attributes many of the same principles that made him a good all-around athlete in his younger years to his success as a coach.
“People would always ask what my favorite sport was, and I would always say, ‘What season is it?’” he said. “I tried to put my heart and soul into everything I did. Having success kind of builds who you are, but a lot of it is the desire and maximizing your potential.
“Kids really don’t know what they can do until someone believes in them.”
