It ran in the family

It was hard keeping up with any of the distance-running Davis brothers during their days at Mead, as evidenced by the 10 individual state championships they won, to say nothing of the 10 team titles in track and cross country they contributed to.

It’s still hard keeping up with Nathan, Matthew and Micah, who ran in college and then kept right on running around until finally settling into their jobs.

Nathan (class of 1990) manages a Seattle-area branch of his father’s framing business. Matthew (’94) is in the music business, co-managing with Randy Jackson of “American Idol” fame a group out of Charlotte, N.C., called Papertongue. Micah (’95) works at the Charlotte headquarters of Bank of America as a program manager for their pro football platform.

Surfing and snowboarding are far more important to the brothers than running, but not the lessons they learned for their days with the Panther distance dynasty.

“I remember I had more fun in high school than I did in college,” said Nathan, who ran at Washington State and was the cross country captain in 1992. “It was just a good group, good camaraderie. … It was a real positive atmosphere. I learned a lot about life, working with people and being a team player, regardless of where you were on the team as far as talent.”

Micah, who ran at Oregon with Matthew said: “When you think about life in business and being successful, a lot of things (coaches) Pat Tyson and Gary Baskett hammered into your brain – goals, teamwork, sacrifice, work ethic – those things translate well to professional life, probably more so than studying. … A lot of (positive) feedback I can directly attribute to being an athlete at Mead.”

Whatever it was, it has helped guide them to good places in life.

Family footsteps

Considering how far the younger brothers wandered from home, and the route they took to get there, it would seem Nathan has had a fairly mundane trek from Pullman to Seattle.

Not quite true.

“I tooled around and had a good time for a few years, drove a cab, messed around,” he said. “Then I went to work in the construction industry, which is what my dad does.”

He teamed up with his dad 10 years ago.

“We’re a mid-size framing business, commercial and multi-family,” Nathan said. “We have 20-30 employees in both places. That’s recent for me, I’m just growing to that level.”

Fortunately his business has not dipped with the economy.

“I notice it in the availability of labor, the number of people laid off looking for work,” Nathan said. “Personally I’m seeing the construction sector move away from houses to apartments, so we’re not seeing a drop off in business, at least this year. We’ll see what happens.”

Nathan, who won his state title on the track in 1990 (1,600 meters) when the Panthers won the team title, doesn’t run.

“I can’t really run, my knees can’t take it,” he said. “I tried to start back up but I’ve taken to riding my bike on weekends to stay fit.”

Back in the day, before making his name as a runner, he raced bikes, and now is the envy of his brothers as a snowboarder.

“We can snowboard out here,” Micah said, “But after being in the Rockies, it’s pretty sorry.”

Nathan has been married for 10 years and has a stepson in college.

“The people I maintain contact with from high school are from the team,” he said.

Own beat

Two things got Matthew into the music business, moving to Charlotte because his brother was there and becoming friends with the lead singer from Papertongue. Eventually that led to a full-time job, and he is pumped.

“You’ll hear about them in the next few months,” he said. “This band is off the charts. It’s a fun, fun group. We’re working on singles now, we’ll have a huge release in 2009.”

He described the group as Coldplay, U2 and Queen become one, with a more urban beat.

“It’s really an interesting combination but it’s catchy,” he said of the seven-piece group. “That’s one of the reasons Randy Jackson instantly loved it.”

Davis’ exploits in high school are legendary. He won three cross country titles and the 1,600 and 3,200 in track as a sophomore and junior. However, a knee problem sidelined him for his senior year, depriving the history book of a potential nine-time champion.

Then he went to Oregon and was a three-time All-American in cross country and on the track at 10,000 meters in 1996, before graduating in 1999 with a political science degree. He was voted most inspirational in track twice and cross country once.

From there it was off to San Diego, working for Pepsi. He reconnected with an old rival, John Clemons, a steeplechase runner for Navy.

“We ran and surfed our brains out,” said Davis, who is fifth in UO history at 10,000 meters (28:38.86 in 1999). “But through that influence I went to the Navy. He was a pilot and that is something I always wanted to do.”

Just before earning his wings the war in Iraq started. He ended up with a choice of joining ground troops or the reserves.

That was in 2003, so he opted for the reserves and went to Charlotte to join his brother, finding a job as a corporate head hunter until the music business became full time.

“I’m the manager, the business manager, I wear a whole bunch of different hats,” he said. “I also take my knowledge of running and apply it to the band. They work out six days a week in preparation of doing 240 show dates next year.”

Running is still a part of his life, despite an estimated 11 surgeries on his knees and Achilles tendon.

“That made it a challenge to compete healthy through out the track season,” he said. “The rewarding and challenging part for any athlete is if you can stay healthy and push your body to the next level of competition. In hind site it made running frustrating, challenging and wonderfully fun when the pieces connected.”

As for the lessons of running, he added: “I don’t run competitively but I run every day. The great thing about running for Pat Tyson (at Mead) and then Bill Dellinger (at Oregon), is I think unknowingly for a kid they installed a love of running. Now I miss it if I don’t get out there. It has opened so many great connections to friends.”

Back and forth

Micah was a two-time All-American in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (1997-98) and two-time Pac-10 champion (1998-99) for the Ducks. He earned the Outstanding Athlete Award in 1998 and the top sophomore award in 1997 in addition to Pac-10 All-Academic honors twice in track and three times in cross country. He was on the Oregon cross country team that placed third in 1996, the year Matthew was fifth in the race.

After graduating from Oregon in 1999 with a degree in visual design, Micah went to Wilmington, N.C., to attend a ministry school. After a year he spent a few years in the publications department before returning to Oregon to run with Matthew for Nike.

While bogged down by injuries, he reconnected with Journee Ziegler, whom he had dated in middle school, and moved to Seattle to be with her and hung up his running shoes. They were married in June 2002.

“I was in the best shape of my life but I was running a trail (in North Carolina) and hurt my knee,” he said. “In Eugene I kept injuring it. When you’re competing at that level you can’t have breaks in training. … I felt like I had accomplished a lot.”

An old friend from North Carolina was starting a business and asked Davis for help, so they moved. Eventually his freelancing led to a contract with the bank and then full-time employment four years ago, moving to his current position a couple months ago.

“I work directly with the NFL and teams – we have the Panthers, Patriots, Redskins and Cowboys,” he said. “I coordinate with the NFL on our joint marketing. We do all kinds of in-stadium stuff, commercials and signage.”

Like his brother, Micah loves his job and Charlotte.

“I miss the mountains,” he said, “but if I had a choice, I’d surf every day. Hurricanes are great for surfing.”

That said, he added, echoing his brother: “Eventually the humidity takes its toll. We’ll have to move back.”