Photos courtesy of North Georgia Athletics
Building off a rich talent base in the state of Georgia, Mike Davenport has created one of the strongest softball programs in NCAA Division II.
With two national championships in the last eight full seasons, and a consistent track record of postseason success, the University of North Georgia has become exactly the program the veteran coach envisioned when he was hired in 1999.
Now with over 1,000 career wins, Davenport had to trust his heart and walk away from his basketball coaching job to continue the building of a fastpitch program at the same school located approximately 45 minutes north of Atlanta.
“It’s why you coach, not where you coach,” were words of wisdom Davenport took from Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Summitt that helped him make his decision.
“That stuck with me,” he said. “I’m living what she started with (at the University of Tennessee). That meant something to me. I could build from the bottom up.”
That decision elevated Davenport from an assistant coach with the women’s basketball program at North Georgia to head coach of the softball program. With that came the added responsibilities including field maintenance, transportation and recruiting for a NAIA program.
“I was out of basketball and into softball,” said Davenport, who currently has a daughter on the North Georgia women’s basketball roster. “I love to recruit. I think that is one of my strengths. The team was already practicing on its own. I had to get to know the girls and learn the game. Recruiting would come later.”
While sound in theory, Davenport failed to realize one key point about high school softball in his home state.
“I was told it’s September, high school softball in Georgia is in the fall,” he said. “The next day I was at a high school tournament in Georgia. I was watching players and taking notes. I was learning as I was watching. That fall, I had my eyes on 25 to 30 high school games. It was the ground work into the spring.”
Davenport’s belief in his recruiting ability paid off. Within five years he had the Nighthawks in the NAIA National Tournament and ready to make the jump to Division II, which the program did in 2006.
North Georgia finished fourth in its conference standings in 2008, won the conference title in 2009 and started the 2010 season with 51 straight wins. That year the Nighthawks got their first experience at the Division II NCAA Tournament and finished 51-2.
“That may be the best team we’ve ever had,” said Davenport.
North Georgia won at least 47 games in three of the next four years to set up a magical 2015 season when the program won the national championship in Oklahoma City, Okla., near where Davenport went to high school and still had many connections.
“It was very surreal,” admitted Davenport, who moved to Oklahoma after his sophomore year of high school. “The whole weekend, just being home for me, and to bring this team to show them off for my family and friends was very unique.”
The Nighthawks arrived in Oklahoma City riding an eight-game win streak after going 3-0 in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament and defeating Limestone College, Catawba College and Georgia College & State University in the Regional and Super Regional format.
That set up the opening-round game with the University of Indianapolis at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, which serves as the home of the NCAA Division I Women’s College World Series.
North Georgia was shut out 1-0 and faced a long road of elimination games to stay alive. Mother Nature made that task even tougher.
“It never stopped raining,” quipped Davenport.
Games were moved out of the main stadium to side fields in the complex to protect the playing surface for the upcoming Division I championship tournament. The event organizers eventually moved the tournament to Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond to utilize its synthetic turf field.
The Nighthawks knocked off St. Mary’s University, Adelphi University and Shorter University twice to reach the title game against Dixie State. Once there, Courtney Poole continued her dominance in the circle tossing a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 victory.
“Our kids never blinked,” said Davenport. “Courtney was just dominant. We won the national championship but didn’t celebrate too long because of more (bad) weather.”
Rain failed to tarnish the celebration and the win elevated the program to a new level.
“It put us on the map,” said Davenport.
Three seasons later, North Georgia was the No. 1 seed in the national tournament but couldn’t repeat its Oklahoma City performance in Salem, Va. Following the 2020 COVID-affected season, the Nighthawks made back-to-back NCAA Division II championship appearances in Denver, Colo.
After finishing 43-8 in 2021, the program graduated a strong group of players and a four-time All-American pitcher.
“We took our lumps (in 2022),” said Davenport. “We needed time to grow.”
Indeed. That 2022 team lost eight of its first 22 games and had a four-game losing streak midseason before winning 14 of 15 games to reach the NCAA Division II championship.
“The last 30 days of the season we played phenomenal,” he said. “We got experience that helped propel us to the next season.”
After suffering their first loss of 2023 in just their second game at the season-opening Gulf Shores Invitational, the Nighthawks won 38 consecutive games to climb to the top of the Division II poll.
A pair of losses to Peach Belt Conference rival Columbus State ended that streak and put North Georgia on notice there were teams out there just as talented.
“Those losses to Columbus State were an eye opener,” said Davenport.
Those two programs met again in the conference tournament and the Nighthawks delivered a pair of statement wins – 9-3 and 12-2. One week later in the NCAA Southeast Regional, North Georgia ended Columbus State’s season with two more convincing victories – 8-0 and 8-3.
“We had a bigger goal in mind,” said Davenport. “We really put things together at the end of the year.”
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