Youngstown State alumna and Youngstown native Courtney Davidson is in her third stint as a member of the women's basketball coaching staff. She rejoined her hometown program in April 2024 as an assistant coach alongside Melissa Jackson.
Davidson serves as Youngstown State’s offensive coordinator, working closely with Jackson on spearheading the Penguins’ offense. She is the position coach for YSU’s point guards, and she is the coordinator for the team’s mentoring program and community outreach. Davidson is also the program’s point person in the areas of compliance, NIL and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
The Penguins played their best basketball down the stretch of the 2024-25 season, winning three of their final four games of the regular season and earning a passionate 73-70 victory over Cleveland State on Senior Day. Youngstown State finished the campaign with 12 victories while working in 10 newcomers and battling through several season-ending injuries at key positions.
Davidson was previously YSU's Director of Operations in 2013-14 and an assistant coach in 2017-18 and 2018-19 on John Barnes' staff. She returned to Youngstown after serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Hartford, Loyola Maryland and Fordham, and she has 11 years of Division I coaching experience.
The Penguins played in postseason tournaments and advanced to the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament in each of Davidson's two seasons as an assistant coach in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
In 2017-18, YSU won nine of its final 11 contests of the regular season to earn a bid to the Women’s Basketball Invitational. The Penguins set a school record for consecutive conference road victories by winning their final six Horizon League road contests of the season. By the end of the season, YSU’s RPI had jumped 113 spots from Jan. 19, which was the second-best improvement in the country over that span.
In 2018-19, Youngstown State went 22-10 and earned an at-large berth into the Women’s NIT while setting a program record with 16 home victories. Behind seniors Sarah Cash, Alison Smolinski and Melinda Trimmer, the Penguins went 13-5 in Horizon League games and beat every conference team in the same season for the first time in program history. Youngstown State led the Horizon League in field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage, assists per game, assist-to-turnover ratio and 3-pointers per game.
Davidson helped point guard Indiya Benjamin finish her career as one of the top players in program history, holding career records for assists, games played, games started and minutes. In 2017-18, Benjamin led the Horizon League with 176 assists, and her 5.5 assists were almost a full assist more per game than any other player in the conference. Trimmer also showed a huge improvement as a senior point guard in 2018-19 when she set a new school record for best assist-to-turnover ratio with a mark of 2.23 during the season.
After the 2018-19 season, Davidson went on to spend two seasons at both Hartford and Loyola Maryland and one season at Fordham, serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at each institution. Her recruiting efforts helped Loyola Maryland finish with a 16-15 record in 2023-24, which was its best record in 14 years.
The Penguins went 15-16 in 2013-14 as Davidson was the Director of Operations at YSU in Barnes' first season as head coach. Davidson held the same role for a year at the College of Charleston in 2014-15 before taking her first assistant coaching position at Radford.
Radford had a historic run during Davidson’s two seasons on the bench, finishing with 42 wins in the two seasons and capturing its first regular-season conference title in 25 years. Davidson was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's inaugural Thirty Under 30 list that recognized the top young coaches in the country in 2016 while at Radford.
Davidson was one of the Mahoning Valley's top high school players of her generation. In 2004, she was ranked as the No. 43 player in the country by the All-Star Girls Report. A three-time first-team all-state selection, she finished her career ranking 28th in Ohio history with 2,076 career points.
She went on to play at Michigan State during a four-year stretch of national prominence for the Spartans. Michigan State was the national runner-up her freshman year, advanced to the Elite Eight her sophomore year and appeared in the Sweet 16 her junior year. The Spartans then advanced to the finals of the WNIT her senior year in 2008. Davidson was the recipient of the Sixth Man of the Year Award as both a sophomore and junior.
Davidson returned to Ursuline High School as an assistant coach from 2008-11, and she was the head coach of the Irish for two seasons before joining the college ranks.
Davidson graduated in 2008 from Michigan State with a bachelor's degree in organizational communication. She earned her master's in school counseling from Youngstown State in 2011.
