Johnel Davis can’t wait for his first game as head football coach at Lansing Sexton.
Davis has been coaching at Sexton 14 years and was previously defensive coordinator.
Sexton was 8-4 last season and made the playoffs for the ninth time in the past 11 years.
The Big Red was 6-3 in the regular season and 2-1 in the playoffs.
Davis said he took the position “because of my passion for developing young lives, wanting to give back to the community and just loving the program. It’s deep in my heart.”
Davis is a 1990 graduate of Sexton and grew up very close to the high school.
He feels it’s a major plus to have past connections to the school as he takes the head coaching job.
“It was one of the advantages, just the relationship I have with the boys, the relationship I have with the community,” Davis said. “As for the young men I’m coaching, I know their parents, I know uncles and aunts, sometimes grandmas and grandpas. There’s a lot of love and support that inspired me to say, ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’”
Davis took the job officially at the end of April.
He has a new offensive coordinator and will continue to work with the defense.
“We’ll stick with the run game, the power game,” Davis said. “We’ll do the pistol on where the quarterback lines up. We’ll be able to do a few more things out of those sets.”
Sexton graduated 18 seniors last year.
“I think these young guys are fired up to prove themselves,” Davis said. “We’re in a race to maturity. We have our offensive line back and most of our defensive line back. We should be OK with our running game. We have to find some playmakers at the skill positions.”