RHS has announced that Ryan Davenport will be taking over as the interim Lady Panther Head Basketball Coach for the 2020-21 Basketball Season. Coach Davenport will be taking over for Cameron Jackson, who has stepped down to take an administrative position in another district.
Davenport is a 1999 graduate of Russellville High School and is currently the RISD Athletic Director and Assistant Principal for Russellville Middle School. Coach Davenport brings 16 years worth of basketball coaching at multiple levels to his new role. He has worked as an assistant basketball coach for the Russellville Boys Basketball program as well as running the Junior Pro Basketball program for Russellville Independent Schools. In addition to basketball and his administrative duties, Davenport serves as the Head Softball Coach for the RHS Lady Panthers.
His last basketball coaching came as the top assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Phil Todd. In his last game on the bench, the 2017 Panthers finished as regional runner-up to Bowling Green High, which won the state championship a week later.
Ryan Davenport is married to Tonya Davenport and the two have two children, Kayelynn, an 8th grader at RMS, and Mason, a 5th grader at Stevenson Elementary School.
Principal Ben Bruni says, “I could not be more happy than to have Coach Davenport lead our Girls Basketball program this season. I believe that in the current educational and athletic climate we owed it to our community and to our girls to provide them with a high quality individual who they are familiar with and who understands the immediate strengths and needs of the program as well as existing operational management systems.
“Coach Davenport checks all those boxes, and I believe that he is the person to lead our program in the immediate future. I have full confidence that he will continue the positive momentum that has been built in the past several years.”
This is the second straight year that Bruni has had to name an interim coach just before the season begins. Last year, Panther coach Rex Booth resigned to take an administrative position in another school system. RHS Assistant Principal Carlos Quarles was named interim boys coach and now is starting his second season as the Panther head coach.