Thirty-six years after completing a three year post-graduate teaching program with the Peace Corps, former Allensworth teacher, Herman Davis moves back to Ghana. When he came back to the United States he got a job teaching at Allensworth. He told Press Telegram reporter Bob Keisser that he was the “principal, teacher, and bus driver”.
After leaving Allensworth Davis worked at a number of other schools before he landed a job as a math teacher and assistant football coach at his alma mater Long Beach Polytechnic High. Other alumni of Polytechnic High, “home of scholars & champions”, include tennis legend Billie Jean King, baseball hall of famer Tony Gwyn, actress and former model Cameron Diaz, and rapper Snoop Dogg.
Coach Herman Davis is a major character is the 2003 book “One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game”, a story about the October 6, 2001 game between two football powerhouses. Ranked by USA Today as the two top high school football teams; De La Salle a predominantly white, all male, catholic high school and Long Beach Ploy a racially diverse inner-city high school; face off in a highly emotional game.
In 2005 Long Beach Poly was number one on the Sports Illustrated list of “The 25 Best High School Athletic Programs”. The Jackrabbits football program has had over 50 players go to the NFL, including; Brandon Whiting-San Francisco 49ers, Omar Stoutmire-New York Giants, Samie Parker-Kansas City Chiefs, Kareem Kelly-Baltimore Ravens and Margues Anderson-Oakland Raiders.
Over his 27 years as assistant coach of the Jackrabbits Davis has become “an institution memory of the football program” and one of the most respected men in Long Beach.
Stephen Hill, Sr.
July 14, 2011
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