Angie Davis remembered as outstanding player, coach, educator

Published 10:03 pm Tuesday, September 9, 2014

MOULTRIE — Colquitt County had an outstanding run in slow-pitch softball during the 10 years years Keith Croft was head coach and Angie Davis was his assistant.

The Lady Packers won 17 or more games five times and over the last four seasons they won no fewer than 20 and won 55 over the final two years.

“Much of our success was directly due to Angie Davis,” Croft said on Tuesday as he prepared to be a pallbearer at Davis’s funeral.

“She coached the girls, but she did so much more. She also taught them about life.”

Davis died on Saturday just one day short of her 45th birthday after a long battle with cancer.

She is survived by husband Mark and two childen who were large parts of the Colquitt County athletic program.

Son Ryan was an outstanding infielder for the Packer baseball team and daughter Ainsley was a four-time All-Region softball player.

Playing for Missie Brock, Angie was a member of the first Colquitt County softball team in 1984 and went on to play for the first Abraham Baldwin College team.

After graduating from Valdosta State, she returned to Colquitt County as an educator, working with special education students and serving for two years as the assistant local coordinator for Special Olympics.

“She always worked well with kids,” longtime local Special Olympics coordinator Grant Hammack said. “She loved her kids and they respected her.

“She had kids she could get something out of and did a great job of making them the best they could be.”

The loss was especially difficult for Croft.

He and his wife Kim were close to Angie and Mark and the two families once lived next door to each other.

Croft said he recently ran across a photo of Ryan Davis as a youngster riding the Crofts’ dog Pack like it was a horse.

Croft and Davis came to call each other “Bubba.”

“We were real close,” Croft said. “She was the momma to all those girls and she took care of their needs.

“Sometimes if I said something harsh to the girls, I’d look at her like I was saying, ‘Is that OK?’ And she’d say, ‘You’re OK Bubba.”

Her athleticism showed even when she coached.

“She could play,” Croft said. “Mark was a good player. But we all know where Ryan and Ainsley got their skills.”

She once accused Croft of being soft on the Lady Packers at practice.

“She grabbed a bat and smoked the ball at them,” he said.

And she could be feisty. If she thought an umpire had made a wrong call, she wasn’t hesitant about letting him know.

“Those were her girls,” Croft said. “She didn’t like them being treated unfairly.”

One time when an obviously pregnant Davis was on the field before a game, an umpire told Croft she would have to leave.

“I told him he’d better watch out,” Croft said. “I said I’d turn her loose on him.”

Davis spent much of her life involved in athletics, either playing, watching her husband, coaching and then watching her two children play.

“I’d like to know how many games she played in, coached or watched Mark, Ryan and Ainsley play in,” Croft said.

Over the last four years of slow-pitch softball at Colquitt County, the Lady Packers finished third in the state twice and fourth once.

In 2000, the final Lady Packer softball team went 28-6 and finish third in the state with Croft and Davis on the bench.

“We had a lot of fun,” Croft said. “We worked hard, but we had a lot of fun.

“My heart’s heavy. She’ll always be remembered by my family and by all the players she influenced.”