There are few figures in U.S. collegiate archery better known than Columbia head coach Derek Davis. After joining Columbia Athletics in August of 2003 as an assistant coach, Davis has lifted his profile, and those of his student-athletes, to the highest levels every year since becoming the head coach in August of 2004.
The third-longest tenured coach at Columbia, the program has reached new heights each year under his tutelage.
At the 2015 National Outdoor Collegiate Championships, Columbia captured the gold medal in both the recurve and compound divisions in sweeping fashion. This was the first time in program history that Columbia was crowned national champions in the compound division. Eleven years prior, Davis’ first team, the 2004-05 squad, won the collegiate championship in women’s recurve, marking Columbia’s first-ever national title. Overall, Davis has coached six recurve teams to national gold medal finishes (2005, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and three compound teams (2015, 2017, 2018).
Three times Davis has been awarded national coaching honors by USA Archery after first being named the USA Archery Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year in 2013. The following year, he was named USA Archery's National Coach of the Year.
In 2016, Davis was not only recognized by USA Archery, but the U.S. Olympic Committee awarded Davis the Doc Counsilman “Science” award – which is awarded to a coach that utilizes scientific techniques/equipment as an integral part of their coaching method or has created innovative ways to use sports science. Davis was the first-ever archery coach to earn the prestigious award.
During his tenure at Columbia, Davis has produced a number of All-American and All-East honorees, as well as a host of USA Archery All-Academic team members. The 2009 season saw a record number of Columbia archers earn All-East, All-Academic, and All-America honors. The 2015 squad later matched that record of All-Americans, with six earning that honor.
Davis has seen much success in the archery world outside of Morningside Heights. In January 2008, he was elected to the Board of Directors of USA Archery in a nationwide vote. He has also chaired the nominating and governance committee and was a member of the collegiate task force which helped develop the newly launched collegiate division under USA Archery. Davis also spearheaded the creation of and serves on USA Archery’s DEIA committee.
For the past nine years, Davis has been part of USAA's international team staff program. He has served as coach or team manager on multiple trips to Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Croatia, Italy, Mongolia, Taiwan and China. Twice Davis has been selected to head the Team USA contingency at the World University Games in 2017 (Taiwan) and Italy (2019). He also served as a coach for the U.S. team at the World Archery Field Championship in Dublin.
Davis served as a coach for the successful Jr. Dream Team program which was designed to develop young archers who show elite level potential. Many of his students have won national titles or ranked in the top ten.
Davis came to Columbia in the fall of 2003 as an assistant to his long-time friend and fellow archer, Larry Brown. When Brown left in 2004, Davis was named to succeed him. He earned his Level 2 certification in 2004. In 2006, Davis was named a Regional High Performance Coach, under the auspices of USA Archery’s High Performance Plan, and underwent intense training with Kisik Lee, USA Archery’s National Head Coach. Davis went on to reach highest status and earned Level 5-NTS certification, the highest level available of which there are less than 20 others nationally.
In recent years, Davis has been selected by World Archery America’s Development committee to host seminars and training camps in countries with developing archery programs including Trinidad-Tobago and Bermuda as well as a continental virtual seminar on sports science during the COVID pandemic.
Before coming to Columbia, Davis was a certified Apple Computer technician at the famed Tekserve on 23rd Street. He served as the Sr. Audio Systems Engineer where he built and maintained production systems for HBO, NBC, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Bjork and many others.
Born in Sherman, Texas, Davis’ first exposure to archery was a physical education class in college. He has been active in the sport for more than 25 years.
Davis studied communications and music at Hunter, and has been involved in Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop and Pop music production.
Davis lives in the Bronx and has one son, Derek M. Davis II, who is a full-time archery instructor, Assistant Manager and at Gotham Archery in Brooklyn. In his limited spare time, Davis loves cycling, travel, hiking, amateur photography and still dabbles in music production.
