John Davis enters his sixteenth season as the head women's basketball coach at Southern Wesleyan University (SWU) in 2025-2026. Coach Davis is currently the longest tenured coach in the history of the women’s basketball program at SWU.
"We want to work to help grow Southern Wesleyan into a premiere university of NCAA Division II athletics by being rooted in Christ-centered teaching,” stated Davis. “We will continue to grow and develop our students by being a university and women's basketball program that will strive to put our faith into action on-and-off the court. We want to give our student-athletes a platform to serve and love people through what we do in sports, while making it a priority to put these two principles into action. We have a great platform at Southern Wesleyan to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am blessed to be here to serve with my family in this capacity."
Coach Davis has been fortunate to coach 5 NCCAA All-Americans, 19 NCCAA South Region honorees, 3 Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) All-Conference members, 3 SSAC All-Division members, 2 SSAC All-Freshman Team members and the 2016-2017 Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year in Tatiana Manuel. Manuel was the NCAA Division II leader in total blocks (114) and blocks per game (4.38). Brittany Mack earned Third Team All-Conference recognition for the Warriors in 2023. The 2022-2023 team was the first team to represent the Warriors in the Conference Carolinas Tournament, with SWU making another appearance in 2023-2024. Both of these teams won the most conference games with 9 apiece, since the Warriors joined NCAA Division II.
The Warriors earned consecutive berths to the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Tournament in 2014 and 2015, along with back-to-back NCCAA South Region Championships under Coach Davis during that same time. He earned his 100th career win in a 90-80 win over Erskine College on February 25th, 2020.
In 2024-2025, SWU ranked in the top 50 in all of NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball in 6 categories: 10th in turnovers forced (23.32), 12th in bench points per game (27.8), 15th in steals per game (11.7), 22nd in turnover margin (4.29), 27th in free throw attempts (20.93) and 43rd in free throws made (14.21).
The women’s basketball program consistently demonstrates success in the classroom with team GPA’s over a 3.0. Under Coach Davis’s guidance, the team has taken two service trips to Harlan County, Kentucky in 2014 and 2017.
Coach Davis came to Central via Wesley College (NCAA Division III) where he spent eight years total. He was an assistant coach with the men’s program for six years under the tutelage of Chris Wentworth and Jerry Kobasa, while serving in the same capacity with James Wearden in the women’s program for two years. Coach Davis began his coaching career in 2001 at the high school ranks as the head varsity boy’s coach at The King’s Academy in Jonesboro, IN. He is a 1997 graduate of Caesar Rodney High School in Camden, DE, finished his undergraduate degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2002 and graduated with his M.B.A. from Wesley College in 2005.
He is married to the former Brooke Burton and they have two children, a daughter named Blake and one son, John (JD). He also serves as a deacon at Hopewell Baptist Church in Seneca, SC and is a member of the WBCA.
