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CLEARWATER — Jared Davis sat on a pew at Heritage United Methodist Church on Sunday morning and listened intently to the pastor's message of forgiveness.
It was a comfortable place for Davis. Since first grade, he has spent nearly every Sunday at the same church. But the meditative and reflective mood there is a far cry from the way his Friday nights look.
When he's head coach of Countryside High's football team, Davis is the one delivering stirring messages of strength, dedication and overcoming adversity.
But no matter the ups and downs of a football season, it's what Davis has learned sitting in those pews at Heritage United Methodist or while on a church missionary trip to Jamaica that he wants his players to take with them beyond the gridiron.
"If I say I'm going to do something, then I'm going to do it," said Davis, 27. "I try to model that as best I can. We want to win a lot of football games, but we also want to build men of integrity and character."
His faith helps him stay focused on that mission: "It shapes me as a person and gives me my value system and a purpose for my life."
Davis is in his sophomore season as Countryside's head coach. The team had an undefeated regular season last year and played deep into the playoffs. They've started this season 2-0. The Cougars travel to Largo High tonight to face another tough challenge.
"He is a very powerful, motivated, energetic coach," said Tyler Serpo, a junior who plays safety. "I feel that he cares about us as students ... I've never heard him curse, not even on the football field."
"He relates to players really well," said Countryside principal Gerald Schlereth. "As with any young coach, there are growing pains that come with the job and any job you do. He is taking them in stride and if he makes mistakes, he learns from them."
Davis played offensive line and graduated from Countryside in 2002. While earning an associate's degree at St. Petersburg College, he would help set up the field for the Cougars' football practices. He got asked to help coach the offensive and defensive line on the junior varsity squad.
"I was fresh out of high school," Davis said. That experience paid off when Davis went to the University of South Florida in 2004.
"He was a student assistant and started hanging around and was a hard worker doing anything for anybody," said Wally Burnham, who was defensive coordinator at USF at the time. "He impressed us so much, we told him that as soon as you get your undergraduate degree we would hire you as an assistant."
Burnham said Davis' knowledge of the football goes beyond X's and O's: "He has a good mind for motivating and he knows how to be tough."
Davis says he learned how to be a coach at USF. "I learned how to handle position groups, kids, personalities. ... When you are in a room full of stars, you are going to have some personalities that all come from different walks of life."
Graduating from USF in 2007 with a degree in Social Science education, Davis headed to Gibbs High in St. Petersburg, where he ran a computer lab and was the football team's defensive coordinator.
At Countryside, Davis teaches social studies — six classes with 150 students.
Davis plans to marry his fiancee, Kate Marron, in March. Though they have purchased a home in the Countryside area together, he said they won't share it until they say "I do."
Jeff Davis, 60, who coached baseball at USF in the '70s and '80s, said he's seen his son mature from player to coach.
"He's really come to grips with the fact that as a high school coach, the wins and losses, the success of your team is going to come and go in terms of high school," said the elder Davis, who also coached football at Countryside and is now the game announcer. "He reached the point immediately and made the decision that he wanted to devote a life to teaching young people about life."
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