Long Beach mourns loss of 'Woody' Davis

Woody and Ginny Davis at the dedication ceremony last year when the high school pool was renamed in his honor.

Courtesy Long Beach School District

Davis and his wife, Ginny, center, were surrounded by past and present swimmers who gathered to honor his 50-year career at the pool dedication ceremony last year.

Courtesy Long Beach School District

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For the members of the Long Beach High School swim team, Coach Woodward “Woody” Davis was more than an instructor. For 50 years he inspired his swimmers to believe in themselves and to enjoy working hard at their sport.

Davis died last Friday, at age 82, after battling pancreatic cancer. His is survived by his wife, Virginia; daughters Tiffany Cannava, of Surfside, Fla., and Tara Curley, of Encinitas, Calif.; their husbands and five grandchildren.

“I’ve had a lot of teachers in my life, but not one impacted me like Woody,” said Board of Education President Roy Lester, who swam for Davis in the 1960s. “You just don’t find people like that. You don’t find coaches like that.”

Over the years, Davis’s swimmers came to follow the motto “Win With Woody,” or “The 3 W’s.” Many of his early students who settled in Long Beach, like Lester, encouraged their own children to join the team to learn from him.

“He treated the kids so well, they would walk through fire for him,” Lester recalled. “Woody treated everybody like they were the most special person, regardless of their skill level.”

Davis was less concerned with technical proficiency, Lester added, than with making sure every swimmer felt like a star and saw the value of hard work and discipline. “Woody wouldn’t yell or talk down — he only encouraged you,” Lester said. “Yet you did not want to disappoint Woody. That was the worst thing in the world.”

“Woody really got to know you on a personal level and set goals for you,” added Cliff Skudin, a big-wave surfer and co-owner of Skudin Surf camp, who swam for Davis’s club team as a kid, and later competed as a middle and high school student. “And to achieve those goals, he really stressed how hard work paid off.”

Skudin added that his parents and younger brothers all swam for Davis as well. In fact, his younger brother, Woody, is named after the coach, Skudin said. Davis would often come over to the Skudin house for family dinners. “He was almost like a grandfather to me and my brothers,” Skudin said. “He was more than just a coach.”