June 13, 2021
Mo'ne Davis, who rose to fame leading South Philly's Taney Dragons to the Little League World Series, could be coming to a broadcasting booth near you someday.
The 19-year-old Davis is working as a sports broadcasting intern and calling games for the DC Grays, a college summer league baseball team, according to the Washington Post.
A communications major at Hampton University in Virginia, the South Philly native said that her passion for talking about sports was part of the reason why she wanted to get into broadcasting.
“I just love being around sports, and being able to talk about them from my standpoint is really cool,” Davis said to the Washington Post. “Especially sports that I’ve played, being able to see them from an outside perspective and relate them to people, it’s something I’d like to do in the future, something that I’m still working on.”
Of course, given Davis' history with the sport, she's a no-brainer to have in any broadcasting booth.
As a 13-year-old, Davis made history and became a star when she led Taney's team to the Little League World Series in 2014.
She became the first girl to throw a shutout and win a game at the tournament held annually in Williamsport, Lycoming County when her curveball and 70-mph fastballs struck out eight batters in a first-round victory over the team from Nashville, Tennessee.
Davis' dominance in Williamsport turned her into a local and national icon. She landed on the cover of Time Magazine, got drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters in 2015, appeared alongside Kevin Hart at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game that same year and won an ESPY for Best Breakout Athlete.
But Davis admitted that she didn't quite understand the impact she had on others when her stardom on the diamond turned her into a celebrity.
“I was so, so young; none of that hit me,” Davis said to the Washington Post. “But as I got older, I started to really realize the impact that I’ve had. Growing up, being an athlete, that’s what you want: to make an impact on other people. So that was one of my goals. I just didn’t think it would happen at such a young age.”
In the years after the Dragons made their deep run in the Little League World Series, Davis pivoted toward basketball at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, where she also played soccer and softball. She first took up softball in sixth grade, and Davis is now an infielder on Hampton's softball team.
Now, the former phenom from Philly is hopeful that she can continue to break barriers and positively impact women in sports through the broadcast booth.
"I think it’s pretty cool, too, to be such a young girl, African American being in a predominantly White, male sport — you don’t see that,” Davis said to the Washington Post. “That’s something I wish we could see more, and as time goes on, I think that will change. That was just the start. I want to keep pushing women in sports, really.”
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