“He just tapped my knee and with a smirk and said, ‘that’s 300,’” Mr. Lay said, a member of the boys soccer coaching staff, when the final whistle blew against Rocky Mountain High School, adding another win to Coach Jim Davidson’s impressive record.

Head boys and girls soccer coach and language arts teacher, Mr. Davidson, was not sold on his first job as a marketer in downtown Chicago. Admittedly, lost after coming out of school, he was offered an opportunity to help coach his high school’s soccer team, and he accepted. He desired to renew his connection with the game of soccer as he had been out of the game since competing in college. Davidson said that he “absolutely fell in love with coaching and ultimately felt teaching was the next step.” From there, he moved out to Colorado where he found his first teaching job in the Jeffco School District and additionally heard about the vacant coaching job at Centaurus High School. When he arrived at Centaurus, he was told that it was actually Broomfield looking for a coach, so off he went to Broomfield. His first interview solidified his next round of interviews and eventually landed him the coaching position that shortly led to a job in the language arts department.

Nearly two decades later, Davidson can recall nearly every game of his tenure. Thinking back to his first season, he said, “We made the semi finals, so I think that winning was happening early, but did I imagine nearing in on 300? No way.” But, 19 years after that first season, he reached his 300th win and only trails the winningest boys soccer coach by 18 games. These 18 wins are highly obtainable, for he feels that he has a lot left in the tank.

“I’m glad people are still calling me Jim and not coach. I think that once I become a coach consistently, that’s probably when I’m getting old and maybe it’s time to think about doing something different,” Davidson said. Although sitting at the helms of a successful program, he feels he has great assistant coaches, and he feels comfortable handing over the mantle. Fortunately, he feels that he has several more years to offer to the program. However, Davidson said, “I also don’t want to be that guy that hangs on too long and is still coaching when I have nothing left to offer…but I think I’ll know when it is time to let go.”      

Davidson is known as a humble man by the community of Broomfield. He gives a lot of his credit to the players he has coached: “I didn’t kick a single one of those balls in that game, I’ve never scored a goal in any high school game, and I’ve never played a game; so I feel the victories actually belong to the kids, both boys and girls.” Like Davidson, the players’ humility with success is one of the hallmarks of the program. If there is something that Davidson is prideful about, it is this concept of humility. This closely ties with his focus on creating a habit for his players to be successful on and off the field. In reflection on a career of success, the thought of being the winningest coach would be “a feather in [Davidson’s] cap […], but it will be something, hopefully, the players will take pride in,” Davidson said, again, deflecting his role and success.

“We’ll cross that bridge if it ever happens, but it’ll be something I’m sure I’d be proud of […] just a great representation of the competitive nature and just the culture of the program,” Davidson said. Being the winningest coach is something he could not even have imagined when he first started, “I was just hoping I could create some sort of culture and create a competitive team.” Now that he is almost at the end of that bridge, still in full stride, it will not only be a great representation of the program, but of the culture brought to the program by his coaching.

Due to win number 300 being an away game in Fort Collins, there was not much time to celebrate. He recalled the most celebration coming from comments posted via social media, from friends, former players and old acquaintances. When reminded how close he truly is to becoming the winningest coach in Colorado boys’ soccer history, with an anticipation-filled laugh, Davidson said, “Oh god, that’s scary.”