Eight years before Jared Phay came to North Idaho College to coach the Cardinals, he was hired to become the junior varsity boys basketball coach and assistant head coach at Falls Christian Academy in Post Falls at the age of 19.

PHAY WAS hired by none other than his former head coach who he played for at Falls Christian Academy, 42-year-old Wes Davis.

Last weekend at North Idaho College, in the Coeur d'Alene Inn-vitational, Davis returned to North Idaho as volunteer assistant coach for Central Kitsap of Silverdale, Wash. The team went 1-2 in the tournament.

"Jared was strong and he was a smart player," Davis said. "He wasn't particularly our most physically gifted player. He started some games, other games he'd be our sixth man. What he was is, he was a hard worker with a high basketball IQ. But I think it helped him become a pretty good coach. He developed good habits like hard work. He couldn't walk out there and physically dominate. But he worked hard at everything."

Phay was Davis' assistant coach from 1995 to '99 and at the age of 23 he was the JV coach starting in the 1995-96 season. Phay later became the varsity coach for two years at Falls Christian, where he led the team to its first state appearance in 1999.

"I asked him one time after he graduated, 'Why don't you help me coach?'," Davis said. "Through circumstances, we ended up being shorthanded and we really needed him to coach the JV team. His team won the game and he switched up defenses at the time. I remember watching him in practice and his ability to get the most out of everybody, he genuinely cared about the kids. He was straightforward with people about they're not going to do. His JV team kept winning."

"I remember watching him one time during a game and I thought, he is really good at this," Davis added. "He was actually quite a bit better than I am at this. So it was no surprise to me how successful he's been. I fully expect him to have continued success. He was always good at figuring out, 'How do you help them in life?' Are you teaching him to be part of a team and teaching him how that carries over to having a job and having a family, things like that."

Phay was an assistant coach at NIC in 2001-03 under former Cardinals coach Hugh Watson. Before that, he was an assistant coach at Motlow State in Lynchburg, Tenn., where the team won the Tennessee junior college title. Before Motlow, Phay was a graduate assistant coach at the University of Idaho, under David Farrar.

"He (Davis) got me into coaching," Phay said. "He was great. He's a very intelligent person. It translated onto the court well with him. He taught me a really good foundation. At the time, he taught me everything I knew about basketball. He was a point guard himself, he really understood the game probably as well as anyone I've been around to this day. He's really good dealing with people."

THE NORTH Idaho College men's basketball team, through Phay, still borrows some concepts from Davis' system at Falls Christian.

"There's still some stuff of his that we run," Phay said. "Things we ran out of high school. I still talk Xs and Os with him."

Phay has returned the favor for Davis.

"He drew up a play for me to use with my 'C' team," Davis said. "He's giving me advice. He's more of a mentor to me than I was for him. He's one of my guys; we're good friends. He's someone who you'd do anything for, you'd go out of your way to help each other."

ON NOV. 21, 1990, the then-sophomore Davis was in an automobile accident as his team from Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash., was being driven in a van between Walla Walla and Spokane. After the team stopped for some dinner in Spokane, Davis said their van flipped several times. Thankfully, no one died.

"You starting realizing what life's about," Davis said. "You've got to enjoy every day. It sounds simple, but what if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, how would you live your life? Well, what if you live every day like that? Something happened with our team coming together. It was pretty special."

Davis, who grew up in Tacoma, has spent the past several years as a pastor at New Life church in Silverdale. On March 23, 2013, Davis was inducted into the Northwest University Eagle Hall of Fame, after he was a first-team All-American and he helped Northwest win the NAIA Division II championship in 1993, when Davis was a senior. He won the Pete Maravich Award, which is presented to the top NCCAA Division II men's basketball player in the nation. In 1992 as a junior point guard, Davis averaged a triple-double, scoring 11.9 points per game, grabbing 11.7 rebounds per game and averaging 10.1 assists per game.

DAVIS, WHO grew up in Tacoma, played at Wilson High. He learned plenty of things that he needed to improve after his first year at Falls Christian.

"First of all, the first year was a wakeup call," said Davis, who was 22 during his first season coaching Falls Christian. "I thought I'd have more success than I did.

Davis' son, Austin Davis, is on the Central Kitsap freshman team. His daughter Kali is a senior at the high school and his daughter, Klara, is in gymnastics. Wes Davis and his wife, Keri, live in the Kitsap area.

"When I had kids (at the age of 26), everything changed. I learned that I needed to build their confidence, not tear it down."

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at bbourquin@cdapress.com Follow him on Twitter @bourq25