St. Pete Times: Frank Davis

[chicky9914]

A tribute to a truly amazing player and person...published in the ST. Pete Times today

The shoe fits, and so does USF lineman from Panama

Frank Davis, introduced to USF at a camp, moved to the United States and walked on.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published December 3, 2005

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TAMPA - From his first trip to the equipment room in 2001, Frank Davis knew USF would be a good fit.

For the first time in his short football career, everything was.

The helmet wasn't an instant headache. The shoulder pads actually extended to his shoulders. Gloves? "Sorry, do I look like a receiver?" he thought. But the 6-foot-4, 310-pound offensive lineman's best memory of that day was reluctantly asking for a pair of size-16 cleats ... and getting them.

"They had cleats of all sizes, and I was amazed," he said. "I remember saying, "I'm not going to have problems with shoes anymore.' I saw the locker room here and said, "We never had this in Panama."'

As a senior in high school in Panama City, Davis had size-14 feet but couldn't find football cleats larger than size 11 anywhere, so that's what he wore, taking his shoes off whenever he went to the sideline.

"Every time I had a little break, I'd take my shoes off," Davis said. "The coaches would say "What are you doing?' I'd say the shoes were a little small, didn't fit my feet. It was pretty uncomfortable."

The same football player who couldn't fit in a football uniform is now a versatile lineman who can fit in nearly anywhere. He has played primarily at left guard, making 12 starts in his first three years at USF there, plus the first nine games this season. Last week, injuries pressed him into a starting role at left tackle, but he'll be back at guard for tonight's regular-season finale against No.12 West Virginia.

Davis didn't find football until his junior year of high school, content to play basketball and avoid the more physical, less popular sport. The first week of practice, he broke his hand, missing all but one game that season. His godfather and former coach, Guillermo Suarez, remembers a heavy thunderstorm that day, and an impressive debut.

"Everybody was just amazed how big this kid was," said Suarez, who now works in Tampa for a manufacturing firm. "The size he had was just overwhelming, but he was athletic enough you could put him at running back."

In January 2000, Panama was selected to play in the Global Football Championships, held each year in conjunction with the Super Bowl, and Suarez coached his national team. Panama lost 28-0 to the European team, but Davis was named the game's MVP, drawing his first interest from college recruiters.

Davis found USF when Panama's national team participated in a summer football camp at USF, where assistant coach Renato Diaz spotted him and introduced him to Jim Leavitt.

"That was the first time it seemed cool to play football. It was so different from back home, and I really started to like it," Davis said.

Davis came to USF as a walk-on defensive lineman, living in the United States for the first time since he was born in New York City. His mother, Delia Richards, who moved back to Panama with him when he was 3 months old, said she has seen football go from a sport he didn't care for to the central part of his life.

"At the beginning, he thought it was too rough, but after he got a season of it, he wanted to make it a part of his life, his future," said Richards, who has never seen her son play football. "It's part of him now, and he works so hard at it. I'm very proud of him."

When Richards sent her son to Tampa for a chance to play, she gave Suarez $800, all the money she could spare, and told him to take care of her son.

It hasn't always been an easy time at USF - Davis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge in 2003, stemming from an altercation during his first month on campus in 2001 - but after five years of college football, the last 31/2 on scholarship, he'll graduate in May with a business degree in management information services.

"I'll probably cry the day he graduates from college," said Suarez, who spent three seasons as a kicker at San Diego State. "He promised his mother he would come back with a degree. So much of his success is his attitude, just humble, no-sir, yes-sir all the time."

Davis hopes he can continue his football on the professional level, and his combination of size and athleticism may give him that chance. He is USF's strongest player, leading in the weight room with the team's highest marks in the bench press (515 pounds) and the squat (655). NFL scouts measure a player's strength by how many times he can bench-press 225 pounds; Davis can do that 35 times, considerably better than the average among guards at last year's NFL combine, which was 27.

Still, this could be the end for Davis and USF's other 12 seniors, who want to play today as if it's their last game. Finishing their final season undefeated at home would be a gratifying accomplishment.

"It's our last home game, and for a lot of us, you don't know if you'll have another chance to play anymore," Davis said. "That makes it a big deal for us."

He first appreciated his love for football when he went back to Panama for the holidays one year and found himself watching bowl games, one after another, not only enthralled by the games but wishing he were playing instead of watching.

"You'd be sitting there, and something inside me just gave me a desire, "****, I wish I was in that game,"' Davis said. "Playing in a bowl would be such a great experience. I don't think we even realize what an impact that will make on our players."

[E.T.]

Great story ... Best of Luck in the future Frank.

Go BULLS !!!