Basketball is basketball. The gender doesn’t matter.

Karen Davis proved that.

In only her second year as Union High School boys basketball coach, Davis orchestrated a stunning turnaround in the program when led the Golden Knights to their first outright Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference title since 1973-74.

As a result, Davis was named the Butler County Boys Basketball Coach of the Year as a result. She was named girls coach of the year in 1995 and 1996, winning 203 games in 10 years as head coach of the Damsels.

Davis joins Gene Rodgers as the only coach to win the award while guiding both a boys and a girls team.

She stepped down from her position as girls coach to watch her sons Devin and Colton play for the varsity boys team. After a year off, she found herself coaching them.

“It was no problem sliding over, really,” Davis said. “I was only away from coaching for a year. It might have been harder had I been away for three or four years.

“I knew most of those boys anyway through Devin and Colton. I’ve watched them all play. I watched them all grow up.”And she knew they could win.That’s why she wasn’t surprised when the Knights finished 20-5 this season after winning only 26 games the previous four years combined.“I saw this season coming two years ago,” Davis said.“She knew those kids and the kids knew her,” assistant coach Eric Mortimer said. “They knew they could win if they listened to her.”Davis instilled the same work ethic in the boys program that she used in the girls program.“We ran a lot,” she said. “We did some intense dribbling drills every day in practice. For each two-hour practice session, the first hour and a half were drills.“We put in two good summers with the boys, too. We taught them discipline — not how to act off the court, but how to act on the court. That’s what it’s all about.”Davis talked about teamwork, about giving up the ball if you’re covered during a two-on-one break, about not pulling up for a 3-pointer when you have a three-on-two, to keep driving to the basket instead.She sold the idea of working together. And the players bought it.“They didn’t look at Karen as a woman,” assistant coach Gary Booth said. “They looked at her as a basketball coach who could help them win.”Booth is Davis’ brother-in-law and never coached basketball before she approached him about becoming her junior varsity coach and varsity assistant.He did play basketball in high school.“I was surprised when she asked me,” Booth admitted. “But it’s been a good fit. These boys really wanted to win and they were receptive to what we wanted them to do.“When Karen took over and from day one, she told them how it was gonna be. She wasn’t going to put up with any back talk. It had to be done her way,” Booth added.The Knights’ successful season ended with a thud, however. Clarion shocked Union, 57-56, in the first round of the District 9 playoffs.“I’m still not over that loss,” Davis admitted. “It’s all the more reason for us to come back strong next year. If we don’t, everyone’s going to write us off as a fluke.“In past years, people expect to play Union and beat them. It’s just expected. We need to change that.”Davis knows what she has coming, too. She is well in touch with Union’s junior high and elementary school basketball programs. Her youngest son, Austin, plays fifth-grade basketball.“There is solid talent from his grade on up,” Davis said. “We’re going to work even harder than we did during the past two years. This season was no fluke. People are going to see that.”