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- April 5, 2009
By: Michael Pina, Special to The News Journal
Davis sees a bright future in the paint
Fla. State-bound center plans career as artist
By: MICHAEL PINA/Special to The News Journal
Posted: April 5, 2009
Chelsea Davis loves bringing people together.
As a little girl, she fondly remembers sitting in the stands with her parents and 11 aunts and uncles, cheering on her older brother at the state basketball championship
game.
While snatching more than 1,000 rebounds and scoring nearly 2,000 points over her career at Middletown High - her 1,972 points are fourth all-time - Chelsea kept that
night in the back of her mind as a source of motivation and a reminder of what made basketball so special to her. She even got to play in her own state championship, with
Delcastle defeating Middletown for the title.
"I always wanted them cheering me on when I got to high school," Davis said. "Not all of my family ended up coming because the championship game was on a Friday,
but they got to see the all-star game, so that made me happy."
The 6-foot-3 Davis, named the 2009 player of the year by the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association with voting by the state's head coaches, averaged 22.2
points and 13.5 rebounds per game this season. Her story will continue next fall at Florida State - a school she chose not for basketball, but for her love of art. Davis plans
on majoring in animation and already has an idea on what she wants to do when her basketball days are over. She's the rare case of a premier high-school athlete with
greater aspirations than excelling at her sport.
Chelsea's mother, Cynthia Davis, recalls first taking notice of Chelsea's drawing talent when she was in the fifth grade. Cynthia Davis remembers going back and forth with
her husband, teasing each other about who was the better artist. Then one day she saw Chelsea's art and realized the 10-year-old might have blown them both out of the
water.
"I was very surprised," Cynthia Davis laughs.
Chelsea, who taught herself to draw, played like one of the best post players in the country, but felt that more had to be done for her fingerprints to be permanently
imprinted at Middletown High.
Every day after practice for a week and half, Chelsea would stay in the gym and work on a mural while her older brother coached the junior varsity team. The painting is of
her in her No. 54 jersey.
"I created a mural because I wanted people to remember me," she said. "You know how people always wonder if their life had a purpose? I'm trying to make sure people
remember me when I'm at another place, when I'm gone."
Middletown coach Suzanne Street said when Davis does go to Florida State in the fall to continue her basketball career and develop her interest in animation, it should be
a smooth transition.
"I was fortunate enough to go down there this summer with her," Street said. "She got along with the players, coaches and staff and her ability will only continue to
improve as she's challenged every day in practice by better players."
Street believes painting has dramatically helped Davis on the basketball court.
"I think when you're using that side of the brain, you think differently about a lot of things," she said. "At practice, if you show her something she has an amazing ability
and talent to pick it up and do it herself right away."
Davis can't describe why she loves to paint, it just comes naturally to her.
"It's like asking me why do I play basketball," she said. "It's just one of those things that you fall in love with."
Next year when Davis is competing in the ACC, going toe-to-toe with basketball factories like Duke and North Carolina, Street will look over at her mural and remember
Davis more for how special a person she was than her abilities on the court.
"She's going to be missed a lot next year," she said. "It's not like she wasn't going to leave a legacy anyway, but with that mural she's left a visual legacy at the gym."
Pictured above: Chelsea Davis will leave more than her record at Middletown High School. She painted this mural on the gym wall.
Photographer: BOB HERBERT/The News Journal
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