From Birdsboro to UConn: Daniel Boone Legend Wendy Davis on the Huskies and Geno Auriemma

Wendy Davis remains atop the all-time Berks Girls League scoring list with an absurd 2,504 career points during her time at Daniel Boone.

The majority of those points came on 2-pointers.

Wendy Davis during her time at Daniel Boone. (Photo courtesy of Wendy Davis)

“The 3-point line didn’t even come into play until my senior year, and I couldn’t reach it, so I didn’t shoot it," Davis said by phone Friday. "And then I go to UConn, and that's all I did.”

Davis hit 107 total 3-pointers—still the fourth-most in school history—during her career at the University of Connecticut, where she was part of head coach Geno Auriemma's program-shifting freshman class.

After the Huskies struggled to a 35-74 record in their first four seasons in existence, Auriemma took over in 1985 after stints as an assistant at the now defunct Bishop McDevitt High School (Wyncote, Pa.), St. Joe's University, the now defunct Bishop Kenrick High School (Norristown, Pa.), and the University of Virginia.

Auriemma went a modest 43-39 in his first three seasons with the Huskies. Then Davis and her classmates arrived.

The Huskies went 24-6 in Davis' 1988-89 freshman season, winning a Big East title and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Two years later, they were in their first Final Four.

"We went to the Final Four in 1991, and now they have so many national championships under their belt that in Connecticut, if they don't win a national championship, the whole state is in mourning,” Davis said.

The Huskies are the flagship women's basketball program in college basketball behind Auriemma. They've sported 1,125 wins and only 109 losses with 11 national titles since. The Huskies are once again in the Sweet 16 with stars Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and Sarah Strong this season as they play Oklahoma Saturday.

"During your career, he shows a lot of tough love," Davis said. "But it's almost like when the NCAA Tournament starts, he stops all that. He works so hard to prepare you for March, and then come March, it's different. Now he's supporting you. Now he's doing everything he can to help you play the best you can play.”

Wendy Davis at UConn. (Photo courtesy of Wendy Davis)

Auriemma has successfully recruited legendary players including Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, and now Bueckers.

The tradition has continued because Auriemma cares about his players equally as people, evident by a recent video of him holding back tears during a press conference with Bueckers, a heralded recruit out of Minnesota who has overcome multiple serious injuries to become one of the top players in program history and cement herself as the presumptive No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft.

“He truly cares about all of us," Davis said about Auriemma's relationships with his players, former and current. "Even when my team won the conference championship a few weeks ago, I got a text from him congratulating me. And it's like, that's just who he is.”

Davis just completed her seventh season as the head coach at the University of Saint Joseph, a Division III program in West Hartford, Conn., a touch over 30 miles from where she left her original mark in the state in Storrs.

Prior to her time at Saint Joseph, Davis coached six seasons at Western New England University in Massachusetts, 11 seasons at Trinity College in Connecticut.

She took a two-year hiatus and began renovating houses when the job opened up at Saint Joseph's.

"I had gotten out of coaching for two years because I just needed a break from it," Davis said. "[Saint Joseph's Athletic Director] had asked me sporadically during those two years when I was doing home remodeling, and every time he would ask me, I'd be like, nope, not interested.

"But then when he called in a panic [after the former coach resigned unexpectedly], I kind of thought, I'm getting older. How how much more can I be doing all this manual labor."

Wendy Davis after winning the GNAC title. (Photo by James Liebowitz, courtesy of University of Saint Joseph)

Davis took the job. A steady progression led to the Blue Jays' first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship since the 1997-98 season this year.

She has no signs of slowing down as a head coach, although she admittedly says she doesn't want to keep it going for 40 years and to age 70 like Auriemma, but it has led her to have even more Berks County connections as she recently recruited Berks Catholic's Madison Langdon to join the Blue Jays.

Davis said she was familiar with Wyomissing's all-time leader scoring Amaya Stewart and raved about former Twin Valley and current James Madison great Peyton McDaniel.

Eventually, when she's out of the coaching game, she wants to contribute to the Berks girls basketball scene. She has familial connections with former great Exeter head coach Jean Frey, who runs the 3Point Goal organization.

“I would love to give back somehow to Berks County basketball because of all that it’s given me," Davis said.