Before he directed Broomfield’s boys and girls soccer programs to a combined 19 finals appearances and 10 state championships — becoming Colorado’s winningest high school soccer coach of all time — Jim Davidson would’ve been lost around town without a map.

It was the summer of 1997. The Hanson brothers had just exploded into popular culture with their hit “MMMBop,” while another legacy — one that would go on to be much longer than the pop stars’ — was being set into motion in the confines of the Boulder YMCA.

“It was the camp director there that said, ‘I think there’s a varsity soccer job that’s open at Centaurus,’” said Davidson, who’d come from Chicago to Colorado to teach at Jefferson High School in Edgewater. “And so, I got out my old Rand McNally map and I drove over to Centaurus.”

The problem with that plan — Centaurus wasn’t hiring.

“Monte Sutak, the athletic director at the time who has since passed, said, ‘No Jim, we’re actually not hiring. I think it’s Broomfield that might have a coaching position,” Davidson said. “So, he called (Broomfield AD) Sherry Barnard and asked if she’d be interested in meeting with me. And she said, ‘Yeah, send him over.’ And the rest was history.”

Davidson took the job to coach the boys program that fall. And despite initial reservations, he also accepted the girls job for the spring.

“It was a scary idea at the time — coaching high school girls,” Davidson said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I was young and a little bit naïve. And I inherited a pretty wild group of girls.”

Like his impact on the boys’ side, however, Davidson enjoyed immediate success with the girls program.

He led them to the postseason in their first year and had transformed the program into a perennial state title contender in no time.

Over eight finals appearances, the girls program won two state championships before Davidson called it a career this past spring.

“It’s been the joy of a lifetime,” he said.

His final stretch with the girls lasted another roughly 3 years after he stepped down as the boys coach following the 2021 season. With the boys, he won an unprecedented eight championships — the first coming in 1999, and the last, 20 years later, in 2019.No other school in the state has more boys soccer championships than Davidson’s Eagles. Cherry Creek is second in the state with seven. Broomfield then raised its ninth championship banner after winning Class 5A in 2023 under Davidson’s protégé, Zach Hindman.

Hindman is now set to take over the girls program. Davidson, in the meantime, said he’ll be an assistant for both the boys and girls for a few more years.

“And then my wife will retire, and then we’re going to kind of figure out what we want to do next,” he said.

Davidson finished with an identical 385 wins for both programs (385-57-19 girls; 385-59-29 boys), culminating in a career record of 770-116-48.

An influence that transcends generations

While there’s little denying the talent that Davidson possesses from a gameplay perspective, his former player-turned-coach Eryn (Gallagher) Balding holds a much deeper bond and respect for him.

He even led her to her current career.

Balding, who was a freshman on Davidson’s first girls team in 1998, was a student at CSU in 2005 when Davidson convinced her to join his girls staff at Broomfield.

While she was wrapping up her studies in Fort Collins, he asked her to come help him with tryouts. As she put it: “Before I knew it, I had dropped a college class and was paying $50 a week in gas to drive down every single day from CSU to coach.”

Under their leadership that spring, the Eagles finished with a 17-2 record and a trip to the semifinals, where they lost in double-overtime to eventual 4A champion Cheyenne Mountain.

Balding, though, believed their talented lineup underachieved that year. She and Davidson discussed as much once the season ended. But that conversation turned out to be much more.

“Over the course of my senior year and being in touch, I think he knew that what I had gotten my degree in — although a topic and something I believed in deeply and loved (health and exercise science) — was nothing I was going to pursue career-wise,” said Balding, who was also playing club soccer for the Rams at the time. “I think he knew I was probably a little bit more lost than I even knew, and I think that’s why he wanted me to come spend time with him.”

Davidson met her at the Old Chicago on Pearl Street in Boulder and teased, “‘Haven’t you figured it out yet?’ I’ll never forget that,” Balding said.

“He’s like, ‘Haven’t you figured it out yet, gal?’ He calls me gal. And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘You are a teacher.’ And he took a sip of his beer. I just kind of sat there with him for a little bit, and I was like, ‘Holy (expletive), you’re right. I want to be a teacher, Jim.’”

Balding and Davidson led the Eagles to their first-ever girls state title the next year as she started her teaching career.

Balding then took over the soccer program from 2008-09, at a time when Davidson needed a break. She left for grad school after that, and today she is coaching soccer and teaching at Arvada West.

Cole Chapleski can relate.

Chapleski played for Davidson from 2006-09 and was named the Colorado Gatorade player of the year and an All-American as a senior.

He said through all of the stresses that came with high-level soccer, his former coach always knew how to lighten the mood.

“After a really, really big game that we had been preparing for, for a week or so, as long as things went well enough, he’d play Bob Marley music over the speakers. And he would tell us to take our shoes and socks off,” Chapleski said. “We’d jog around barefoot about as slow as we possibly could with it still being a jog. That just brought this real big sense of just ease and calmness and joy and lightheartedness to the group, just at the time that we needed it.”

Chapleski, who scored the game-winning, overtime goal against Mullen in the 2007 state championship, said Davidson is a part of the reason he’s the man he is today. He joined Davidson’s staff for the 2019 season.

“There’s nothing that had ever meant more to me than winning at Broomfield,” said Chapleski, who played college ball for DU and served as an assistant coach with Regis University, Metro State and a couple of youth clubs.

“I had wanted to be around the environment that Jim had always fostered with the team, because it was just such a pure form of the game, and there were just so many things that were right about being (on that) team,” he said. “I missed that piece of it a lot. I missed how important he made it feel and how much everyone just cared.”

Even Davidson’s foes on the pitch marvel at what he’s done.

“Jim is a class act,” longtime Boulder boys coach Hardy Kalisher said. “The mutual respect Jim and I have is deep. The kind of relationship we have — I’m the first to call him when he does well. And vice versa.”

Davidson and Kalisher were at the forefront of turning northern Colorado into a hotbed for some of the best high school soccer in the nation.

Over their two-decade rivalry, the two traded blows on the biggest of stages, which included the 2014 5A title game that Broomfield won and the 2016 classic that Boulder took in penalties to cap off its perfect season.

“Every coach that’s been around appreciates what he modeled for all the coaches, not only in the way he built a program and manages the games, but also when we’re at the state and league meetings, how he carried himself and advocated for the sport and its players,” Kalisher said.

The next chapter

Davidson’s successor, Hindman, hopes to forge his own path while keeping Davidson in mind. And if his first three years at the helm of the boys program has proven anything, it’s that the girls will have plenty to look forward to.

Hindman first took the reins of the boys team in the fall of 2022. The next year, he and the Eagles ascended back to the top of Class 5A. Following their championship victory, Hindman said, “We stood on the shoulders of giants, and I think the guys dug in and decided that they were going to embrace that.”

He and that “giant” tearfully embraced in the stands following the game’s conclusion.

“That’s one of the most magical moments I’ve ever had as a coach,” Davidson said later that night. “Seeing my protégé, Zach, one of my best friends, win a state championship and get us back — it’s just phenomenal.”

Hindman first joined Broomfield’s staff in 2014 after convincing Davidson to make room for him. His persistence eventually wore him down.

“Working with Jim is a pretty special thing,” Hindman said. “Obviously, his career speaks for itself, but what makes it unique is that in spite of all the success he’s had, he’s incredibly open to suggestions. He gets everybody fully involved in the process. When I joined the staff, I was in this situation where I felt really intimidated and wasn’t quite sure how to contribute, but he would just ask me for what I thought about a certain situation or what I thought was going on. And then I immediately felt empowered.”

While shadowing Davidson, Hindman said he learned how to interact with students and players in all walks of life — from those struggling inside the classroom to those prevailing on the pitch. And though he wants to keep Davidson’s influence prevalent, he said he hopes to create his own culture with the Eagles.

He knows full well the size of the shoes he has to fill.

“I’m truly honored to be given this opportunity, and I feel like there’s an abundant responsibility associated with it, just making sure that I do live up to the foundations and the things that Jim worked so hard to create,” Hindman said. “I think what truly you hope for with a legendary coach is that the success continues after them, because that means that they’ve set something up that’ll last a really long time.”