Legendary coach Davidson retires

Don Davidson, the only head boys basketball coach in the history of Aurora Christian, announced his retirement Friday.

He had been contemplating retirement for the past year, but decided it was best after the 2007-08 season.

This past season was dedicated to Stephanie, Don's wife who passed away days before the season began. His first thoughts of retiring came last summer, when Stephanie was in two different hospitals for 16 days and Don was unavailable to be with his team during that time.

"I didn't do a thing with basketball," Davidson said. "I came back and didn't miss (basketball) at all."

When Stephanie passed away at the end of October, Davidson thought he should return for one more season.

"After she died, the best thing to do was coach," Davidson said.

Davidson came to Aurora Christian in 1977 at the beginning of the third year of the school to start the sports program after 10 years at Yorkville, where was the head coach from 1971-1977. In that time, he went 82-73.

In 31 seasons at Aurora Christian, Davidson went 549-304 for a total of 631-377 at the varsity level. Aurora Christian, since joining the IHSA in 1989, has a total of 9 regional and 5 sectional titles.

In his final year with the Eagles, he finished 18-11 with a regional title on AC's home floor.

Davidson, who has 10 grandchildren, plans on coaching at the middle school level next year. Seven of his grandchildren will be in middle school next year with the oldest in sixth grade.

He said he would like to "play a small role in helping them also develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and inspire them to develop a love for the game."

Davidson said he plans on continuing his responsibilities as athletic director and part-time Bible teacher at Aurora Christian.

A new head coach will be named in a few days.