Davidson, Scott

BORN IN 1959 IN WINNIPEG CANADA, Scott Davidson played minor hockey for the River East Marauders in Winnipeg. In those years, a progressive Ukraine coach led the Marauders to Provincial titles, and Davidson toured Canada and played in the Wrigley tournament series against teams like the junior Marlies and the Soviet Midget Red Army.

Australian hockey was in big trouble before the arrival of overseas coaches in the early Eighties. When the nation reached out to Canada for help, the CAHA considered it carefully, and were very particular about who they sent. Scott Davidson was one of the young uni grads who stuck his hand up, and it wasn't for a hockey holiday. At 22, the young ambassador of Canada's game blazed a trail for our country's first World Juniors, changing the way we thought about the top-level game forever (A reminder of what we can be: Bibliography below).

In Melbourne, Davidson was originally recruited by Max Wildman and Otto Wolf for the Demons club in 1980. When the club's A-grade team could not make up the numbers at the start of that year, it was suspended and he was 'loaned' to the Monarchs for a season, never to return. He played 216 senior games in the Victorian league, mostly with the Monarchs and Monarch-Saints clubs between 1981 and 1991.

He won the coveted President's Medal three times in a row—1983 to '85. He won 7 state premierships with the Monarch-Saints in 1983, 1986-88, 1990 (as coach) and 1991; one in 1996 with the Saints as trainer; one with Russell Athletic in 2000; one with the Marauders (OiHAN) in 2002; and another with the Braves in 2009. He also played for the Chargers and the Melbourne Jets in the Super League of the early-1980s and competed in Slapshot 83.

At the age of 22, he was one of four coaches of Australia's first two National Junior Teams (U20), with Glen Williamson, Ivan Brown and Craig Campbell. The squad toured Europe for a fortnight, competing in Bucharest, Romania in early-1983. The team returned in 1984 to Varese in Italy. He was an assistant playing coach in the 1987 D-Pool Worlds in Perth scoring an average of 7 points a game! On 21 goals 21 assists, he was top goal scorer and equal top on points with Charlie Cooper. In 1988, he represented Australia at the Thayer Tutt tournament, an alternate Olympic competition, in Eindhoven near Amsterdam. In 1989, he was captain of Australia in the C-Pool Worlds in Sydney.

Scott Davidson founded a hockey school in Melbourne in the early Eighties, and a sportswear and fashion outlet. Later he co-founded Elite Sports Propertie with former AFL footballer Craig Kelly, and former Olympic swimmer Robin Woodhouse. They sold the talent management and sports marketing group in 2015, and today it is known as TLA Worldwide. Davidson still plays Masters hockey with the Melbourne Marauders, a club he founded with Paul Doney, Richard Motteram and a few others.