Many, many stories could be written about the exceptional female athletes that have worn Philomath colors through the years. Trisha Stevens quickly comes to mind with a high caliber of basketball skills that she took to Stanford.
In that same era of Warrior athletics, Mary Jo Davis (name also spelled in newspaper articles as Marijo Davis) could certainly hold her own not only in hoops, but also in cross-country and track.
Davis graduated with Philomath High’s Class of 1989 and certainly left her mark on Warrior athletics. An all-around athlete, Davis was one of the program’s top runners and after all these years in the school record books, she ranks 10th in the 1,500-meter run and 11th in the 3,000.
Davis had a lot of success in cross-country back in the 3,000-meter days as a top runner all four years of high school — the best during her junior and senior seasons. Davis was part of state title cross-country teams during her freshman (1985), sophomore (1986) and senior seasons (1988). Individually, she finished as the state runner-up as a senior.
Davis was a stellar basketball player as well and was part of state title teams (with Stevens) in 1985-86 as a freshman and 1986-87 as a sophomore under coach Shirley Huyett. She headed into her 1988-89 senior season as one of the few top returning players but suffered a season-ending knee injury in December.
But back in the day, Davis has to be remembered as one of the top cagers on Val-Co League courts.
Davis went on to play collegiately for the University of Oregon from 1989-92.