Greg Davis fitting right in at his Alma mater

Greg Davis coaches during a huddle at RPI Open Session on Saturday July 29th, 2023

Photo By: Dylan Friebel

COLONIE, N.Y. - Before you read this, please understand there probably will be bias. I went to Colonie, I have pride in the community I come from and I am not going to hide it.

With that being said. 2 years ago I went and shot a game at Lasalle High School. It was for me to see then head coach Greg Davis and what his coaching is like close and personal. Sure I have sat at Hudson Valley during a sectional game when he was the head coach at Troy and they played Colonie but I never focused on Troy then.

What I saw that day was something I figured I would see but I also was a little taken back by the press break I had seen, it was like I was watching Colonie play in the Sophomore and Junior when then head coach Doug Kilmer was still at the head of the program. That day I wrote how Davis, whether he knew it or not, had taken aspects from every coach he played for or coached under. From the press break during his playing days, to the fire Rich Hurley and Brian Frucsio have when they coach, it all melted into Greg.

Then came the announcement just over a month ago that Greg Davis was taking over as the head coach at Colonie after Ken Dagostino stepped down after eight years where he went to two sectional finals.

What many don’t know is when Rich Hurley came back to coach at Troy, it was Davis who was also a teacher there who went over to fill the vacancy at Lasalle and continued to teach there. This summer Davis wanted a change in teaching venue so he took a job at Colonie, but at the time of him taking the teaching job there was no guarantee of being a coach in the program, he was going to continue at Lasalle.

“I took the teaching job as a head coach somewhere else.” Davis said at the RPI open session. “All the chips fall where they did and it felt like it was meant to be. We had the discussion with Mr. Roemer and they made the decision I don’t think I had a bigger smile then on my wedding day.”

The coach which Davis played under during his time as a student at Colonie was the aforementioned Doug Kilmer, who took a talented squad to the 1999 state finals where they fell to White Plains 43-42 and had 300 wins during his time running the program. While there isn’t pressure on Davis’s shoulder to live up to what the former coaches for the Raiders have done, he wants to bring Colonie back to what it once was.

“I don’t think there's pressure to say the least.” Davis commented. “The expectation is to win and who does not want to play and coach under expectations. If we have a goal in mind to get back to sectional finals and regionals, that's what our goal should be every year. We will transition it down to the players to say ‘let's go to work and get there’ and be there every year.”

As his first year as the Raiders head coach there are even more obstacles to overcome with the split of what once was the highest classification in the state ‘AA’ which will now be split into Class AAA and AA, with eight schools under the AAA class in section 2. Shenendehowa, Shaker and Colonie will be under the new class to name a few.

“A few things are changing this year with the new class.” He said. “There’s more opportunity for us which is good. There’s only eight teams. We should always be competitive and that's the culture we are developing.”

I was fortunate enough about 12 years ago when I was 14 years old to be sitting on the bench of a freshman basketball game at Colonie as a sophomore. The coach that day was none other than Greg Davis who was coaching his first ever high school game. To say the nerves were high that day were an understatement and I could see it on the Rookie Coaches face.

Fast forward 12 years and he is handed the keys to a program he literally dove on the floor for loose balls for in his youth, it has come full circle but it is nothing but a journey.

“Thank goodness for the journey because it has prepared me for now. After Colonie went to (Albany) Academy for a year with Brian (Fruscio) to Troy with Rich Hurley, at Lasalle on my own and now back here. It has prepared me for where I want it to go and the vision I have for the program. The vision we as coaches have. I would take every part of the journey no matter what. I coached with and against and was mentored by some amazing coaches and I can't put a price on that.”

When Davis took the jobs at other schools he always wanted to beat everyone but It was a little sweet beating his alma mater. He coached his first game at Colonie as an opposing head coach on February 1st 2018 in which he came out with the win.

“I wouldn’t say I wanted to beat them (Colonie) more. I was lucky at Troy to have beat them a few times and even at Lasalle. It was always ‘Lets try to get one for Coach Davis now that he's home’ but now it’s once again beating your rival Shaker and things like that now that I am back.”

The transition for Davis has seemed seamless but I don't think there was any expectation it wouldn’t be for his homecoming. In his time away from the Colonie program he won a sectional title with Troy in 2019 for Class A, they made it all the way to the State Semifinals. He is a proven winner and has come a long way from the Freshman coach I watched break a board during a timeout of his first game and hand it right back to me as calm as could be. The future is bright at 1 Raider Blvd in the MUG.