With 21 points under his belt this season, men’s lacrosse junior Scott Davis has been a key component in the team’s game-time successes thus far.
Davis, a native of Overland Park, Kansas, said he started lacrosse while in 5th grade in Michigan and was looking for intensely “athletic” sports  to play. While he played soccer and baseball when he was younger, Davis said he never was able to “get into it” and found lacrosse to be a more natural fit.
“When it came to lacrosse, it came pretty natural,” said Davis. “A large group of my friends were doing it as well.”
Davis’s natural abilities and experience on the field has certainly capitalized for him this season, as he was named the CCIW Offensive Player of the Week on March 16 for his scoring total of 21 points. Teammate Kevin Gleason soon followed suit, giving Augustana men’s lacrosse a conference reputation as an offensive powerhouse. Davis said his personal strategy has been to “change up” his plays every game and to give his “all, all of the time.”
However, Davis credits improvements in team chemistry from last season as one of the most important keys to the team’s victories and his own high scoring percentage. As most of his goals this season were assists, Davis said he was able to take advantage of more scoring opportunities on account of his team’s improved reliability on the field.
“Last year, it [team chemistry] was not good at all,” said Davis. “This year, we hang out and get along as a team better…our level of competition is much higher.”
While Davis said he is not in any primary leadership position on the team, he strives to lead “by example” and foster the team to play not only harder, but smarter.
“I’m not really a big rally guy, but I lead through my actions,” said Davis.” I really believe that me playing as hard as I can inspires our freshmen to play as hard as they can.”
As the men’s lacrosse team continues to improve physically, Davis stressed the team must now focus more on mental conditioning in order to continue to produce wins. He said much of the responsibility for March 3’s low-scoring loss against Centre College was a lack of mental focus.
“Our worst game was against Centre. We didn’t come ready to play and got complacent,” said Davis. “I felt like we weren’t there mentally and we realized it too late.”
However, Davis hopes to use his high scoring percentage as well as the recent success of the men’s basketball team as rallying points to improve mental focus and keep Augustana men’s lacrosse on the road to success.
“The success  and chemistry of the team [men’s basketball] really inspired me to work as hard as them,” said Davis. “When we’re playing well, and our team chemistry and atmosphere is high, it keeps everyone coming back.”
In addition to men’s lacrosse, Davis is a Physics major with a Math and Computer Science double-minor, and is the president and founder of Augustana’s Astronomy Club.