Sandpoint alum TJ Davis earns scholarship to run track at Eastern Oregon University

SANDPOINT — The novel coronavirus pandemic has had quite the ripple effect on the sports world over the past few weeks.

It has caused thousands of spring college athletes heartbreak and left them wondering what they will do after their season was canceled. Luckily, the NCAA, NAIA and others have granted those athletes an extra year of eligibility.

TJ Davis, a 2018 SHS grad, was impacted by this but wasn’t devastated when he heard the news that his season was canceled. In fact, it turned out to be sort of a blessing for him.

On Monday, Davis announced via Instagram that he accepted an offer from Eastern Oregon University to run track after spending the last two years competing at Spokane Falls Community College. All along Davis planned on spending two years in Spokane before earning a scholarship to a four year university. And ultimately that’s what happened but Davis was certainly worried that opportunity wouldn’t present itself when the season came to a halt in the middle of March.

The reason being Davis wouldn’t have any marks for schools to go off of from this year. But thanks to some connections Spokane Falls head coach John Spatz had at Eastern Oregon, he was able to put in a good word for Davis and the Mountaineers felt comfortable offering Davis a scholarship based on what they had already seen.

But coming into this season Davis wasn’t even fully healthy. During his junior year playing basketball at Sandpoint, Davis dislocated and tore ligaments in his ankle. He returned to compete in one track meet at the end of the season. After avoiding injury in his senior year of high school, Davis arrived in Spokane ready to prove he was worthy of a scholarship to a four year university.

However, at this time last year Davis reaggravated his ankle injury right as he was getting ready to compete in the most crucial events of the outdoor season. He battled through the pain and took part in the Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, finishing fifth in the decathlon with a personal record 5,687 points.

Davis did what he could during the past offseason to rehab the injury but he wouldn’t have been at full strength if the season had started.

Davis just wrapped up six weeks of physical therapy and feels fortunate that he didn’t have to push his ankle this season and compete.

“It feels good now but I haven’t pushed it and I don’t intend to until I now it’s exactly where it needs to be,” he said.

The canceled season is also giving Davis the opportunity of a lifetime. Due to the NAIA granting spring athletes another year of eligibility, Davis will get to be on the EOU track team for three years instead of just two. That means Davis will have a full offseason to get healthy and gains an extra crack at trying to reach his goal of becoming an NAIA national champion in the decathlon.

“I’m actually really excited for the decathlon,” Davis said. “I was hoping to do really good this year because I know that the mark I have now as a PR is basically nothing compared to what I have the potential to do, but it would have gone up by at least a 1000 points this year and I’m hoping now with an extra year it can be even higher than that.”

The SHS school record holder in the 110 meter hurdles didn’t always have his eyes set on being a decathlete but when he got to Spokane Falls he realized he had more potential to be successful at the decathlon then just focusing on hurdles. He also enjoyed the challenge of trying to compete in 10 different events at a meet and he admitted he is still learning to master all of them.

“It’s super fun to learn and it makes track practice a lot more interesting then just showing up and doing a hurdle workout,” Davis said.

Late in his senior year, Davis chose to pursue a collegiate career in track over football. He could have accepted an offer to play football at Montana Tech and would have if the school had a track team. A handful of other schools offered Davis an opportunity to play both sports but they were far away and located in places he wasn’t interested in.

So Davis decided Spokane Falls was his best shot at earning a scholarship to a four year university. And it also didn’t hurt that SFCC and Coeur d’Alene High School assistant track coach Linda Lanker told Davis she would do everything she could to make that dream a reality.

Lanker’s coaching resume is longer than most short stories but includes nearly 50 years as either an athlete, coach or official on the USA Track & Field team. She has coached 15 NWAC Champions and was the head coach of the junior and senior US women’s track teams twice.

Davis called Lanker “one of the best hurdles coaches in the world,” and feels lucky that former Sandpoint basketball coach Kent Leiss connected him with Lanker following his sophomore year at SHS.

Davis is finishing up his associate degree in business at SFCC this spring and is looking at getting his bachelor’s in business management or education at Eastern Oregon. Davis hasn’t decided what he will do after college but is leaving his options open and would love to be a coach down the road.

Davis believes becoming a Mountaineer is the right fit for him.

“To have them super excited about signing me makes me feel like this has to be the right decision because I’ve never had that before,” he said.

Davis can’t wait to get to EOU and leave his mark on the program.

“I’m ready to get there that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a test over these next six months to stay in shape when you can’t really go out.”