Chasing Clarity

It was just over 24 hours before the new-look Kingfisher Yellowjackets were set to make their debut.

A solid crop of juniors with a mix of a couple of seniors had been dominating the JV circuit for two years, but now it was their turn to carry the torch of KHS boys basketball.

One of those seniors was a sharp-shooting big man who coaches were counting on to provide the Jackets with some scoring punch, especially considering they lost all five starters from the 2021 state championship team.

He’d been waiting in the wings while names like Bijan Cortes, Matthew Stone, Jarret Birdwell, Maverick Ridenour and Ian Daugherty were keeping the program at the pinnacle of Class 4A.

So on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2021, one day before he was about to begin making his mark on the program…

Chase Davis quit.

• • •

Shooting seems to be in Chase Davis’ blood.

Sure, he stands 6-foot-4. Sure, he’s Kingfisher’s closest thing in size to a “big man.”

But Davis is a shooter and shooters gotta shoot.

“I have always been a shooter in my mind,” Davis said. “It’s what I’ve practiced since I was little.”

In those JV games and when Davis would make appearances in varsity contests, he made the most of his minutes.

When it came time, he wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger.

But those opportunities were still sparse. After all, he was playing behind a group that played a big part in the best four-year run in state history.

Entering last summer, Davis got a call from an AAU coach.

Promises were made, but not kept.

It didn’t take Davis long – about three games – to realize joining the team was a mistake.

But the damage was done.

“It hurt my love for the sport,” Davis said.

Still, Davis asked if he could play on the summer team that consisted of most of his KHS teammates and was coached by Justin Mecklenburg.

He joined, but quickly injured his knee.

Doctors said if he had any hopes of playing his senior season, he needed to give up basketball for the rest of the summer. So he waited.

Preseason practices began and Davis worked through his knee injury.

All the while, Davis knew something didn’t feel right inside.

“It had been in the back of my mind since the summer,” he said.

So he walked into head coach Jared Reese’s office and turned in his jersey.

Simply put, said Davis, he was burned out.

The nonstop summers. The bad experience the previous summer. It all took its toll.

“I was in shock,” Reese said. “To us, it came out of nowhere, so we were blown away.

“We knew we needed him, but we also wanted to make sure there wasn’t something else going on with him.”

• • •

There’s no bigger Chase Davis fan than his mom, Lindsay Kopp.

Not only is she in the stands each and every game, but she records plays on her phone and loops together highlight reels.

She’s your typical proud mom and Kopp herself couldn’t wait to see what Davis could do when given the opportunity to be a major contributor to one of the best basketball programs in the state.

Then Davis quit. “Complete and utter devastation,” she said of her reaction. “And I mean that in every way. I cried nonstop, all day long.”

Reese reached out to Kopp to see if, in fact, there could be underlying issues.

Others reached out to Kopp as well. The advice ranged from “force him to play” to “encourage him to do what he wants.”

“As his mother, as heartbroken as I was, I felt that I could not force him if he truly was burned out,” Kopp said.

“So, I just cried…and cried…and cried. I was so sad.”

Kopp and her husband, Kelly, had what she said was a “deep conversation” with Davis that Thursday night.

Davis’ younger sister, Avery Davis, also sat up with him for over an hour to talk.

Teammates let him know he was wanted.

“I reached out to him along with some others because I knew he had the potential to be a big part of our success,” said junior Caden Kitchens.

Added Xavier Ridenour: “I’m not sure if I texted or talked to him in person, but I did because I sure wanted him back.”

Davis also spoke with Justin Mecklenburg, the father of teammate Maddox Mecklenburg, as well as Kitchens’ father, Stacy Kitchens.

Reese, of course, didn’t shut the door on Davis.

He told Davis to text him if he woke up Friday morning and had changed his mind. They’d work it out, Reese said.

Family. Teammates. Coaches. Parents. Kingfisher.

They helped Davis realize he wanted basketball in his life.

“It was less than 24 hours before I realized I made a mistake,” Davis said. “But the community came together and brought me back.

“I’m very thankful they did.”

Davis woke up and sent the text to Reese, asking if he’d accept him back on the team.

Of course the answer was “yes.”

He walked downstairs and told his parents about the text exchange.

“I gained so much respect for Coach Reese and Chase after that,” Kopp said.

Davis didn’t start that December Friday in Chisholm. In fact, he didn’t suit up.

He played his first game the following Tuesday when KHS hosted then second-ranked Tuttle. The Jackets won 58-40

The Jackets won 58-40 and Davis scored 14 off the bench.

“That’s the kind of thing he can do for us,” Reese said at the time. “He’s the type of player who can go off for 20 points. There’s going to come a time when we need that.” Davis didn’t start the

Davis didn’t start the rest of the semester.

“I definitely understood why,” he said. “It would’ve looked bad if the coaches just let me walk back on the team like that. It definitely made me work harder and also helped humble me a bit.”

Finally on Jan. 4, Kingfisher’s first game back from the break, Davis got the start at home against Chickasha.

He responded with 23 points.

On Feb. 21, he scored 21 against Cache.

Davis torched Harrah for 31 points on Feb. 19 as the Jackets began their playoff march.

He was that consistent 3-point shooter the Jackets needed, but had become a more well-rounded player in the process.

Still he was a shooter.

And, if the shot wasn’t dropping, he was still a threat.

“There were days where my shot wouldn’t fall and I’m thankful for my teammates who stepped up in those games,” Davis said.

But he kept shooting because of the confidence in himself and from his coach.

“Anytime you have a good shooter, they have that mindset that it’s going to go in,” Reese said. “I remember early in the year he went something like 1 for 6 from 3, but we were continuing to run him plays.

“When they have confidence as a player, it breeds confidence in coaches and teammates. The fact he thinks it’s going to go in is huge.”

The confidence - from coaches, from teammates, in himself - paid off in a major way at last weekend’s state tournament.

The Jackets were battling fourth-ranked Crossings Christian School in the semifinals at State Fair Arena.

Struggling to score, KHS finally got a bucket with 5:40 left in the first quarter.

It was from Davis.

Two minutes later, he nailed a 3-pointer. Twenty-one seconds after that came another trey. Then another bucket.

Davis had Kingfisher’s first 10 points of the game as they led by seven.

He scored twice more in the second quarter and had 14 of Kingfisher’s 21 points.

Davis finished with 16 as his teammates began to find their own strides in the second half and Kingfisher advanced into the finals.

There, the Jackets quickly fell behind No. 2 Victory Christian 5-0. They had again gone more than two minutes without scoring.

Davis caught a pass in the corner, had a slight opening and launched a 3-pointer.

He’s a shooter. He drained it. The big exhale began as Davis got the Jackets going in the championship.

He scored Kingfisher’s first five points, then accounted for six of the nine they scored in the second quarter.

After a quiet third, Davis stepped up big again in what proved to be the stretch that won Kingfisher a state championship.

Victory’s Joshua Udoumoh scored with 6:28 to put the Conquerors up by two points.

Then Davis answered with the biggest 3-pointer of his life.

He’s a shooter.

“That was so big,” Reese said. “We had tried a couple of different plays that didn’t get anywhere, but the guys didn’t force anything. On the third try, we set a flare screen for him and he made the big shot.”

It was the start of a 9-0 spurt in just 91 seconds of game time.

The game had flipped in Kingfisher’s favor and the Jackets didn’t let it slip away.

They won 51-43 to garner their third straight state title and fourth since 2017.

Davis scored 14 points and had four rebounds.

“He played a massive role in our success,” said Ridenour.

Davis’ ability to knock down pivotal shot after pivotal shot for the Jackets led him to being named the state tournament’s most valuable player by both The Oklahoman and The Tulsa World.

“Hitting big shot feels great to anyone,” Davis said. “My shots decided to fall in the last few games.”

He almost didn’t give himself a chance to hit them.

Reese doesn’t know if Kingfisher would have won without Davis.

“It’s hard to know,” he said. “It doesn’t look like it at the time, but you just never know.”

But he does know Davis could have kept himself from an experience of a lifetime.

“Fortunately he changed his mind right away,” Reese said. “Think about what he could have missed out on.”

After the game ended, Davis got his gold medal, the team got its gold ball and players posed with the student section.

Davis eventually made his way through the crowd to his mom.

She was crying. Again. “I thought making it to that game was enough. Then they won,” Kopp said. “I thought that was enough. Then they named him MVP and I just lost it.

“It just couldn’t have possibly ended better.”

It was the true fairytale ending.

A season that almost wasn’t for Davis ended with a championship that he helped deliver.

“I made friendships that will last forever. I got to be a part of a great team and we won state,” he said.

“There’s nothing more I could have asked for.”