Media Day: Canton Tigers

Head coach Rob Davis believes he is on the way to establishing a winning tradition at Canton.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 5:42 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Aug 21, 2010 11:25 AM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY – The entire Canton Tiger team, most notably head coach Rob Davis, have a chip on their shoulder this season.

The Tigers have historically struggled, but Davis helped lead a drastic turnaround in the last two years. That culminated in a trip to the state championship game last year, but ended with a blowout loss to Garber.

With last year’s stellar senior class now gone, most publications are picking Canton to return to mediocrity. Davis and his team feed off that. They all sounded almost angry when discussing how much they are motivated by the talk surrounding this year’s team.

Davis enthusiastically believes that he is on the way to establishing a winning tradition at Canton, thanks in large part to his focus on improving his team’s toughness. Davis wore a rugby shirt to Oklahoma Sports Media Day Saturday and said he wore it as evidence of why his teams are better than Canton’s past.

Davis and all the players at Media Day talked about the benefit rugby has had on their team. Davis stressed that rugby involves several of the same techniques, but the lack of pads has increased his team’s toughness and tenacity.

Davis was one of the most passionate coaches who spoke during the first half of Media Day, and he delivered one of the best quotes: “Only losers know their place at the bottom. Winners find a way to get to the top.”