Davidson returns ‘home’ to guide Dragons

Published 4:16 pm Monday, March 9, 2026

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Kenny Davidson, the new head football coach for the Warren Central High School Dragons, speaks during a press conference at the school on Monday. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)

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Kenny Davidson, the new head football coach for the Warren Central High School Dragons, speaks on his plans for the program during a press conference at the school on Monday. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)

As Warren Central athletics director Anja Shelton introduced new football coach Kenny Davidson in the school’s library on Monday, the 1998 Warren Central graduate took a moment to look out the window at the football field he will now preside over as head coach.

Davidson is excited about the chance to come home and bring stability to a program that has seen seven coaches in the past 18 years. He replaces Jeremy Harness, who left after two seasons to take the head coaching job at John Hardin.

“It’s really a surreal moment,” Davidson said. “The support from the community — they have been very, very encouraging. When she was talking, I was looking out there at the different fields. I think we can do some special things here, but it is consistency, discipline and structure to build a championship culture here.

“Central has a lot of tradition. A lot of people around here don’t realize the tradition that is here. It is our job to try to get it back to the level that it once was. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take some work, so I ask the community to be patient.”

Davidson returns to Warren Central after spending the last two years as head coach at Louisville Seneca. The Redhawks went 9-13 in that time, including 4-7 last year.

While Davidson appreciated his time at Seneca he said the chance to be closer to his family, including his father, was one he couldn’t pass up.

“To be honest with you, I was happy at Seneca,” Davidson said. “I appreciated Seneca for the commitment, the encouragement and the support that they gave me and my team there. However, just being able to come back home and build this program back to where I once started makes all the difference in the world.”

In addition to his time at Seneca, Davidson has been on the staff of several programs including Louisville Central, Warren Central, Caverna and South Warren. He spent six years at South Warren and was part of the staff for the 2021 team that won the Class 5A state championship.

“I have been lucky and blessed that I have been able to be around coaches like Joel Taylor, Marvin Dantzler, Brandon Smith,” Davidson said. “You take bits and pieces of the things they did and you mold it into your way, but you still want to do things the right way. There is one common denominator all those guys had. They do things the right way. That’s number one, do it the right way.”

Davidson inherits a team that finished 3-7, 0-4 in its first season in Class 5A, District 2. The district features Bowling Green, which has won 12 straight over the Dragons dating back to 2008, and Greenwood, which has won 11 straight against Warren Central dating back to 2013.

“Make no mistake, Bowling Green High School and Greenwood High School are not going anywhere,” Davidson said. “That’s the standard and that’s the standard we have to try to get to. We are going to work extremely hard to try to get there. It’s not going to come overnight. Success doesn’t happen overnight, but we are going to work every single day to try to be 1% better every single day.”

And that work starts right away for Davidson, who said he has a lot on his plate the next few weeks.

“Everything we have to do, we have to be patient in what we do and not jump too quickly,” Davidson said. “The first thing is meet with coaches, try to get the right coaches on board — making sure coaches understand what situation is in. I think we have a good start on getting coaches. That’s step one. After that we will start dealing with individual meetings, team meetings and then we will go from there and see where it goes.”

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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