Series means happy birthday for Davis
By Richard Streetman
Staff Writer

     Softball’s Jenny Davis celebrated her 21st birthday last night, but instead of the usual drunken rites of passage she probably got a full night’s sleep.  That’s because like last year, Davis, known as “JD” to many, is at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. 

     “[Last year] we went to Macaroni Grill,” Davis said. “They sang happy birthday. We got cake and just celebrated and I got presents. I would drink, but going to the World Series is probably the best gift they could have gave me.”

     Few expected the Blue Demons to return so soon after losing five starting seniors, the so-called “Fab Five.” 

     But did Davis? 

     “At the beginning, no,” Davis said. “I thought we’d be rebuilding until the middle of the season.  Then, Liz stepped up huge, Lindsay stepped up huge, Julie-Julie always steps up, though- Tami. Everyone.”

     Davis said everyone wasn’t skeptical. “Even when I was doubting it, Tony [Campbell] and Mari Anne Dolack-she’s one of our sponsors-she said, ‘You guys are going back.’  We were like, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’”

     The addition of several freshmen who played better than expected have helped. “They’re good. I’m very proud of them,” Davis said.

     “Going back,” however, won’t be the same. The trip to the World Series last year was the first time a DePaul sport made it into the Final Four since 1979.

     “Last year it seemed like a bigger deal,” Davis said. “It’s expected out of us now. It was on the back page and the front page of the Sun-Times. Now it’s like, ‘Oh, congratulations.’ If men’s basketball went to the Final Four two years in a row it would be a huge thing. I just wish the freshmen could see what it was like last year.”

     In 1999 DePaul, one of the few new teams the series had seen in years, captured Oklahoma City’s attention. “Everyone loved us in Oklahoma,” Davis said. “After we lost to UCLA 1-0 in the Final Four all these little girls ran to DePaul for autographs. No one went to UCLA. Everyone just loves DePaul—the people there—’cause we didn’t take anything for granted. Other schools like UCLA, they get everything handed to them.”

     Davis’ height gained her a certain stature with many young fans. “In Oklahoma everyone’s cheering for you and a lot of little girls are looking up at you. Little girls like me ‘cause I’m little. I’m the same height. They’re like, ‘I want the short one to win. Give me the one who’s like my height.’”

     One reason for Oklahoma City’s love affair with DePaul is media coverage of the ever-quotable coach Eugene Lenti. “He’s just a blast,” Davis said. “He lets us do what we want to do, no regulations-just go out and play and have fun. He’s been riding me a little bit. [He] told me I have to grow up and I have to be a leader.  Last year I was ‘the kid,’ now I’m supposed to set an example. I think I just grew up. I just grew up really fast. He’s like my dad.”

     While she has always been a popular player, Davis has become a much more pivotal part of this year’s team.  She’s taken the place of Liza Brown, an All-American member of “the Five,” in left field. “Last year, I knew I wouldn’t be playing so I didn’t work as hard as this year,” Davis said. “Lenti didn’t recruit an outfielder so I’m the only one who could play left field—me and Molly Sircher rotate.

     “I was happy and I was scared ‘cause it’s hard for me to fill in for Liza Brown,” Davis said.  “What was expected out of me was to be like Liza.” If being like Liza is the game plan, then Davis has had the best coach. And for the past three years her best friends have been Californians Brown and Julie Luna.

     Davis doesn’t talk much about her family.  Her parents divorced when she was two years old.  Her father remarried and she has a half-sister.  Her mother, Linda, still lives in Glendale Heights, where Davis grew up with her brothers Dan and Dave. But Davis is by no means alone.

     “My family’s DePaul. The Lunas, the Jakuszes, the Browns, the Lentis-they’re my family,” Davis said. I still have my friends from high school, but I think I’ve been through more with [Luna and Brown].  I’m really close with Julie and Liza. Last year I lived with Julie and Liza. This year Julie and I are still roommates.”

     Though Brown was one of the Fab Five who graduated from the team last year, she is continuing her education at DePaul.  Brown, Luna and Davis are close friends and love to compete.  “She’s playing awesome,” said Luna of Davis.

     “She’s the best left fielder that DePaul’s ever had.”  When asked if Davis is better than Brown both ladies laughed, and Davis made the save: “I have to be better then Liza ‘cause I’m her best friend and she taught me. I learned from her and had another year.”

     Of course Davis has always been the player to call for a bunt. “Jenny is the specialist,” Luna said. “Every bunt sign she gets, she puts it down no matter what. I have 100 percent confidence she will put the bunt down.”

     Davis was not always so popular among her teammates. “We hated each other when I first got here,” Luna said. “We heard that she was talking about other players, but it was a rumor. She always went home on the weekend cause she had a boyfriend, so none of us knew who the real Jenny Davis was.” 

     After graduation Davis plans to put her finance and management degree to use by running her own Taco Bell franchise. Does she plan on making it big on the earning potential of fast food?  “No, it’s ‘cause I love Taco Bell and want to get fat and eat, like, 50 burritos a day. I worked there in high school and it was fun. I’m just in [finance] for the money.”

     Davis plans on traveling for two years after college and then settling down in Illinois somewhere. But at some time she would enjoy living in California.

     “I’m student teaching there in the fall,” Luna said. “Liza will be the [softball] grad assistant next year. It scares me. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next year, I don’t know who’s going to be my roommate on road trips, I don’t know who I’m going to live with next year. Oh, thank God Liza’s staying, otherwise I’d really be lonely,” Davis said.

     In situations that cause a lot of stress, the softballers have fun. In their games against Michigan last week, not only did DePaul win the regional undefeated, they won “the fun game,” too.

     “It goes, ‘Dun-na-na-hey, Go Blue!’” Davis said, referring to the popular Michigan cheer. “Every time they started singing it, we started singing it ‘cause we were blue. We always sing that. Then we started clapping along with them, and they were like, ‘What are you doing?’ And we were like, ‘Dun-na-na-hey, Go Blue!’ and the people in the stands would yell, ‘Demons!’ They hated that,” Davis said.

     Davis has a few words for those who see individual players as the only reason for the team’s awesome success: “Last year everyone thought it was like five people who led us to the World Series, and this year it was like 20 of us. I think every single person had to play as good as they could in order for us to get there. It’s not just like the Nos. 1 through 9 in the starting lineup, either. I think what really kept us going this year was to prove everyone wrong. We wanted to we wanted to throw it in the Fab Five’s faces.  And next year it’s three-peat!”

     After speaking to Davis, it becomes apparent she will make it, both on the field and off. It seems next year Davis wants to have her birthday cake and eat it too, as long as it’s in Oklahoma.