Bear Davis & Mommy Roni

Meet Bear Davis and his mom, Roni. Born Veronica, Roni perhaps already had a penchant for nicknames and when she had her third child, she sang to him like she did with all the others singing "Winnie the Pooh" which was popular at the time. Instead of Winnie, however, she would sing Kenny the Pooh as Bear's actual given name is Kenneth. Despite Roni's singing, the Kenny part never stuck, but the name Bear did! Bear grew up with his mom and dad and two older siblings from Roni's previous marriage. With the difference in ages, Bear was everyone's baby and a delight to both family and teachers alike.

Bear played every sport under the sun and was able to be outside constantly which he loved. Roni notes that Bear was a stickler for practice and would not miss it no matter what--even walking himself through the fields to get to his sports practice.

Roni describes being a boy mom as a lot of fun. She was able to give them the freedom to be their own person and express themselves in their own space. She breezes through the story of allowing them to paint and decorate their rooms the way they wanted, but it's a key point that she makes. She notes that the kitchen is her space and organized/maintained the way she wants it since she is the cook. However, when it came to the bedrooms of her children, she let them paint the walls, change the walls, repaint the walls, and whatnot. Giving a child this space to create and change, but within an overall structured and safe environment undoubtedly set the stage for development of an underlying philosophy that Bear uses in coaching lacrosse: provide a framework of structure, but allow the player to create on the field or in the box.

Fun Fact: Bear played football in college and now his son, Kaiden, has committed to playing lacrosse at Wilmington where Bear will take on a coaching role. Bear's father has coached alongside him for over 30 years and it seems the tradition may just continue onto the next generation. Here's another crazy connection-- I actually knew of Bear Davis because my father had a friend and industry colleague named Steve "Mouse" Moresewitz (no way I spelled that right) whose kids played lacrosse for Coach Bear at Archbishop Spalding HS and I only knew that because my sons had to play at Spalding for many tourneys when they played for MadLax and Steve would talk to us about it. The weird thing is I never put any of this together until we moved to Ohio, and then put it together that Bear Davis, head coach of the Machine at that time and coach at Resolute Lacrosse where my boys went to train were one and the same.

Maybe it was because Bear was Roni's third child, but her even keel and practical approach is calming because she is so grounded. Roni tells us she wasn't this way, however, when having to watch Bear wrestle--her least favorite of all of the sports he played. We agreed that wresting is absolute torture for a mother! Both of Bear's parents supported him in his sports career which has included coaching lacrosse at every level including at the pro level with the former MLL Team the Ohio Machine (sniff, sniff... we still miss them). Roni has had the delight of both watching her son on TV and being there to watch him coach with her "Mama Bear" shirt and smiles on.

What's great about these two is the simpatico that they share. Not that I would characterize Bear as chatty, but you can clearly see that he would not hesitate to pick up the phone to call his mom to check on her and how she is doing. I have no doubt that most of the time Roni is chatting away with Bear sitting in comfortable silence just enjoying his mother's company and enjoying the family that he's built along with wife Marissa. I loved the candor and vulnerability that both Bear and Roni brought to the show in acknowledging the role that divorce has played in their family and how they have navigated it to still all stay strong and connected. In a world that is so plagued with constructs of living "the perfect life", it is beyond refreshing to meet real people who live in the same real world that the majority of us live in. This ability to tell-it-like-it-is is another hallmark of being a great boy mom. While Roni loves her daughter, she is outnumbered two-to-one making Roni a decidedly majority boy mom!

Thank you, Bear and Roni for being such a great edition to our Boy Mom Podcast show!

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