Feb. 1, 2010
Junior thrower Greg Davis has made a major impact with the Irish track and field team during his career. The Peachtree, Ga., native earned all-BIG EAST honors in the weight throw and competed at the NCAA Mideast Regional in the hammer throw a year ago. Davis recorded the second-best weight throw mark in school history at 61-5 (18.76m), just one centimeter shy of the record, at the BIG EAST Championships last season. Davis sat down with UND.com to tell us a little more about himself.
1. What is your major and why does it interest you?
I’m an accounting major. Second semester of my freshman year, I changed over to business and took all of the introduction to business classes and just thought accounting was a really relevant course. I thought it was really interesting, and I think the future of a getting a job in that field is just a lot more stable than some of the others.
2. What do you miss most about your hometown (Peachtree, Ga.)?
The weather there is usually pretty fantastic. I’d say the warm weather and my family is what I miss most.
3. What would you like to do after graduating from Notre Dame?
Right now, I’m thinking of taking my fifth year here and getting my masters in accounting. Then, hopefully public accounting or something else will come along along the way.
4. What is your favorite thing about track at Notre Dame?
I really think that the balance they put on athletics and academics is really fantastic. Here, you do everything academic first, then you worry about athletics. While athletics are great and fun, you’re going to be working for the next 60 years, not doing track, so I really find a good balance between the two to be important.
5. What is the worst part about track at Notre Dame?
The only thing that is bad is that we go to Arizona State for our first outdoor meet. It’s about 85 degrees there, and then we get back to campus and there’s still snow on the ground. It’s not fun that we have to walk across campus in the snow after we’ve just been in sunny Arizona for a bit. Besides that, I love everything about it.
6. What is your favorite memory at Notre Dame?
I would say last year when we won the BIG EAST by half a point after we were down by a lot going in to the second day, and it didn’t seem like we’d have much of a chance.
7. When did you become interested in track?
When I was in middle school in seventh grade, I started playing football and played basketball, too. You just naturally went into track or baseball after that depending on what you did. Also, my uncle actually has the shot-put record at Notre Dame still, so I have some rich family roots in throwing. I figured I’d go ahead and give it a try. I ended up loving it and liking it a lot more than football.
8. What has been your greatest accomplishment in the sport?
I really think getting here and getting into Notre Dame has been the biggest thing that the sport has done for me.
9. Do you have any specific role models for track? If so, who and why?
My high school club coach. I credit most of my ending up and doing this here at Notre Dame to what he taught me.
10. Do you hold any personal goals for track? If so, what?
I do. I would like to go to nationals in the hammer and the weight throw. I’d also like to set the school record in both. The school record in the weight is 18.76 meters, so I was just a centimeter short last year. The hammer record is just over 61 meters, so I think that should be attainable this year.
11. How does track at Notre Dame compare to track elsewhere?
I’ve just done it in high school and my club team. I think you have a lot of individual pride in club and in high school, but when you put on the Notre Dame jersey, it’s something special. I can remember vividly when I first got my Notre Dame jersey as a freshman, and I was just so excited to go put it on. It’s just something really special.
12. Do you prefer indoor or outdoor meets? Why?
I like the outdoor. I like the open air. Especially when the weather gets nice outside; that’s more what you think of when you think of the summer Olympics and stuff like that. Also, the hammer goes a lot farther, and I think it looks a lot cooler, so that’s fun.
13. Do you have any pre-game rituals/superstitions?
Not really. I usually just try to eat the same stuff and wear the same clothes. I’m kind of superstitious about what I wear. I’ve decided for indoors for some reason I throw better in long tights, and outdoor I throw better in short tights.
14. What song always gets you pumped up before a game?
“Vice Versa” by Pastor Troy
15. What is your favorite place on campus?
When you’re driving onto campus after you haven’t been in a while and you see all the trees leading up to the dome, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Also, if you just get a coffee and sit outside on a bench to relax for a minute and take in the beauty of the campus, that’s one of my favorite things.
16. What hobbies do you have?
My favorite hobby, which I don’t get to do too much anymore, is wakeboarding.
17. What attracted you to Notre Dame?
The reputation of the school. I read some stuff about it and really liked it. I took a couple of college visits and really just fell in love with it. Now I’m here.
18. What is your favorite class?
I took a strategic management class last semester which was really interesting. There’s a program called Capstone which is a business simulation program that brought all my learning from all my business classes together more like a real-life situation which was really great.
— ND —