Published: July 08, 2008 11:29 pm         

Concord golf coach steps down

ATHENS — Concord University head golf coach Gene Davis has stepped down, athletics director Greg Quick confirmed Tuesday.

During Davis’s three years with the program, the men’s golf program participated in the NCAA Division II national tournament in 2006 as East Region champions. Concord and the West Virginia Conference co-hosted the nationals at Glade Springs resort.

Concord finished fifth among 15 institutions at the West Virginia Conference championships in October.

Davis “will be dearly missed,” Quick said. “He’s a fine coach and a fine gentleman.” Davis was also a women’s basketball assistant coach at the Athens institution, and had been an assistant football coach.

Quick said that Davis and Concord alumni Will Johnson and Darcy Donaldson have been “team-coaching golf.” He said “at the current time” Johnson is the head golf coach and he is being “assisted in great part by Darcy Donaldson.”

Due to state personnel requirements, making a permanent appointment is “down the road,” Quick said.

Johnson, the athletics facilities manager at Concord, is also an assistant men’s basketball coach and former head women’s basketball coach.

Donaldson was named WVIAC men’s golfer of the year in April 2006, and made all-conference in golf for three consecutive years.

Concord announced in January that it was launching an intercollegiate women’s golf team. Last spring there were seven women’s golf teams in the conference.

Quick said that Concord is “well on our way” to fielding a team, with approximately seven women golfers committing to join the squad. “We hope to have 12 by the time we begin play in the fall,” Quick said. “We have a full contingent of matches on the schedule.”

He said the institution was “excited” about starting women’s golf and reinstituting men’s soccer this fall. He added that the recruitment process is continuing, even beyond the academic year that begins next month.

“Right now, we’re recruiting diligently for the class that’ll arrive in 2009,” he said. The coaches “are working hard to get early commitments.”

The Davises are reportedly moving from the area.

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