After a slow start to their 2025 season with many close losses, Davie’s baseball team was sitting at a 6-12 overall record going into the month of April. Back-to-back conference match-ups had seen the War Eagles putting up no runs against Reagan and falling short of East Forsyth 15-3 away and 11-6 at home. The prospect of finishing the season with a losing record was becoming much more real.
The team could have lost hope. Instead, they found a new focus, one summed up by Coach Doug Lavalley’s new mantra for the season: “one bite at a time.” Up to this point in the season, Lavalley had observed a trend among his players: they were seeing themselves as many individuals playing together, not a team. The “one bite at a time” mantra came from the desire for the team to “just do [their] part,” which he credited as being what “saved” the season.
And it’s difficult to disagree with Lavalley’s assessment. The team rallied around this idea, using it as motivation to turn their season around. What followed was a remarkable eight-game winning streak, including big victories over #1 West Forsyth and South Iredell. Senior pitcher Tucker Hobbs attributes the team’s streak to this shift in mindset.
“Instead of playing for ourselves, we really started to play together and just went out and played,” Hobbs said.
While the focus for the season had moved to building up the team as a collective, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a number of stand-out individual performances. Three players—Hunter Potts, Drew Krause, and Coy James—earned all-conference. Additionally, James, who has committed to Ole Miss, finished the season with ten home runs and a batting average of over .280. He was named CPC Player of the Year and State Player of the Year, and Gatorade Player of the Year for North Carolina. James now qualifies as a candidate for Gatorade National Player of the Year.
Off the heels of their eight-game winning streak, Davie entered the 4A state playoffs as the 29th seed, facing off against fourth-seeded Grimsley High at the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ Minor League stadium—an experience many players and parents cited as a highlight of the season. Despite a loss of 11-0 ending their playoff dreams early, the team’s rally back from a 6-12 record to a 14-14 season and making the playoffs was a testament to their determination.
Looking back, the 2025 season proved that resilience and teamwork can change the course of a year. The War Eagles showed that “one bite at a time” was more than just a motto—it was the missing element the team needed to rally together and finish strong. While the season ended sooner than any had hoped, this refusal to give up despite the odds has set the stage for future success if the War Eagles can remember they are more than a collection of individuals: they are a team.
