By Frances Davis

Special to Portage Sports

So Much Has Changed And Yet So Much is Still the Same

Frances Davis was born on April 6, 1931, and is 95 years old. She is a retired teacher, administrator and coach, who spent time doing all three in some capacity at Southeast High School and Windham High School. She is unanimously considered a pioneer for high school girls sports, especially during her time at Windham.

This story started almost 100 years ago!

I come from a family of 11.

Nine children and our mom and dad.

Dad worked in the coal mine.

Mother cared for the children, took care of the garden, cooked and cleaned.

We lived on a 20-acre farm.

We raised crops to feed the family and the animals.

We all graduated from high school.

Two of us graduated from college and the other children got jobs.

One had a job at a balloon factory, but when the war came, they started making ponchos for the service men.

Two of my brothers were serving in the Army.

It was my turn to get a job.

I liked mowing lawns, and I did that as a job for two or three years.

I worked for the family across the street from us. The wife wasn’t well, so I would clean the house and mow their lawn and do other chores that she needed done.

One day, the son of the people who owned the house stopped to chat with me.

He asked me how old I was and asked me if I got good grades.

He asked, “Do you want to go to college?”

I told him, “I do get good grades and yes I would like to go to college.”

As he stepped back into the house, he said, “Keep up your grades.”

The next summer he came back out to the house and stopped again to talk with me.

He asked the same questions.

I repeated the same answers.

Yes, I do well at school — I got all As and Bs.

Yes, I want to go to college, but I knew my parents could not afford it.

There was no money.

He said, “I would like to talk with my mom and dad to see if I can get you some help to pay for college.”

Fast forward one year…

I was now enrolled at Youngstown College.

The man who talked with me the previous two summers was Dr. Jones, who was the President of Youngstown College.

I moved on campus to their family home. I had my own room and bath and a big closet.

I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

I worked for the family during my time at Youngstown. I would help with meals, do some cleaning and helped Mrs. Jones with entertaining.

She’d have tea parties and dinner parties.

I graduated from Youngstown College four years later with a teaching degree in Health and Physical Education.

I got a teaching job at Youngstown East.

The classes were large — about 25-30 students — maybe more. There were two of us teaching the gym classes for the girls.

I got married the following June and lost my job because the district would not employ married women.

The Superintendent from Southeast High School called me and asked if I was looking for work.

I told him I was married and lost my job at East.

He said, “I need teachers — you are welcome here.”

I spent two years at Southeast. It was in Edinburg before the townships consolidated into one school.

I had my first two children while I was there and began subbing then instead of teaching full time.

And then!

Title IX happened.

That changed a lot for me and for our students.

My children were now all in school, and I got hired at Windham as a Health and P.E. teacher, and we began to implement sports for girls!

We didn’t have much by way of equipment, though.

The first sport we started was track and field.

We had three hurdles and all of our meets were away, because we didn’t have enough equipment to host the other teams.

The first year, Sabrina Ruff made it to the OHSAA Track and Field State Championships.

My husband Don and I took her to the meet. She ran in two events, and she took second and third place in the state in her events.

Dennis Mulhern began pole vaulting, and we added the high jump and discus throw to our team.

Each year, more and more kids joined the team, and we were winning! Many of the girls track team ended up going to districts.

We then started a girls basketball team and two of Marty HIll’s boys basketball players helped me coach. The boys would finish practice and jump on the bus to go help coach at the girls game.

I made sure they had lunches to eat on the way to the game.

Next came volleyball for the girls.

We played in the old gym. The net was tied on one side to the bleachers and to the stage on the other side.

I was coaching all of these sports, but began to turn them over to other coaches little by little. Mike Chaffee became the volleyball coach.

Starting and maintaining these sports cost money, for equipment, uniforms and other things.

We started having craft shows as a fundraiser.

We had tables down the hallway and in the gym — wherever we had a spot. The boys and girls teams working together to raise money for their teams.

I dropped out of coaching when athletic director Ed Permowicz retired.

I took on the Athletic Director job for both boys and girls sports for about 12 years. I retired in 1992 and to celebrate, my husband Don and I went with Bob and Moni Wert for a three-month Alaskan adventure.

Through all of this, we always worked to do what was best for the kids.

They were our inspiration.

We often had them over for dinner, they came to swim in our pool.

We supported them in any ways that they needed.

When I was asked to share my story, I thought, “What do I have to give to teachers, coaches and athletes of today?”

What I think is important is that although so much has changed over this last century, so much is still the same.

Children still have the same basic needs as they had when I taught.

They need cared for, they need to have a purpose, boundaries, guidance and they need to feel connected and that they belong.

You can give these things to them.

Strong academics and a strong athletic programs provide opportunities for students that many of them may not have on their own.

Be a Dr. Jones to someone.

Be the encourager, be the one to help students explore their interests and abilities.

Yes, it’s a lot of work, and we often don’t see the growth and the fruit of all we do.

But it is worth it.

I still have former students who stay in contact with me, visit me and attend special events with me.

Dr. Jones had a profound impact on my life.

Because of him, I was able to have an even greater impact on many students and now those students are out in the world impacting others.

Be a Dr. Jones.

I have told you my whole life up until now.

So much has changed yet so much has stayed the same.

I thank you for reading.