Everyday People: The Teacher Brings a Love of Sport to Jewell |

JEWELL – Fans of youth sports by the sea remember Kai Davidson as an all-league soccer player and state-qualified track and field athlete who competed in both sports at the college level.

Clatsop County students – Jewell in particular – know her as Mrs. Brown, a teacher who also loves soccer and coaches.

It’s been a long journey in a short amount of time for 28-year-old Kai Brown (formerly Davidson), having overcome personal loss at a young age and then overcoming a serious knee injury to play the game she loves.

She is her fourth year teaching first and second graders at Jewell School, where she also trains basketball and athletics in middle school. She still lives in Seaside which means some very long days of commuting, teaching and coaching.

“It’s about a 45-minute drive, but it’s worth it,” Brown said. “I like to teach. At this age, they are all like sponges and are quick to learn. This age group just learns to read and then understands what they read. “

Brown recently accepted a job change for the next school year to head the sports department at Jewell.

At the moment she is still teaching the boys, then after school she works with the high jumpers for the school’s route teams.

In her final two years at Seaside High School, Brown (class of 2011) qualified for the state in the high jump and long jump, but soccer was her first love.

She attended Southwestern Oregon Community College at Coos Bay on a scholarship in soccer and athletics.

Her father and biggest fan, Art Davidson, died in the middle of her sophomore year and she returned home.

“I only played football because my father passed away right after the first season,” said Brown, who lost her mother at a young age. “It’s kind of cool that he saw me play college football for at least one season.”

Brown moved to Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, where she also received a soccer and track scholarship and participated in both sports.

At one point in her football career, she suffered a knee injury to the posterior cruciate ligament but continued to compete with a knee brace.

From there, Brown worked for the Portland Timbers annual youth camp for five summers.

“I still do it alone as we live near Broadway Park, but unless you go to Portland, there isn’t a lot of recreational football out here,” she said of the North Shore. “What is unhappy. I try to stay in shape as much as possible. I went to the seaside soccer game against Astoria and when I walked in several people asked me when I was going to train. “

In fact, her coach – the girls’ coach at Seaside – Dave Rouse is “trying to get me to help next season,” Brown said.

Brown eventually received a bachelor’s degree in education from Washington State University – she’s still a huge fan of Cougars – and earned a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching online from Western Governors University.

Brown got married two years ago. Her husband works for the Coast Police, as does her brother David.

Currently, Kai and her husband have no plans to leave the north coast.

“My brother lives here, my sister (Amanda) is thinking about moving here. My brother has two children and that’s why it’s nice to be an aunt to my nephew and niece. “

At 22, Brown learned that she had another brother who lived in California.

“My father died without knowing it,” she said. “He’s working on missiles in California in the Mojave Desert. It’s like the family brain. “

Because the class sizes at Jewell School are much smaller, Brown has been teaching personally since September. Needless to say, it’s been a long year because of the coronavirus pandemic and she’s looking forward to summer.

“I’m going to a conference in Las Vegas after school is out,” he said. “After that, I have a travel bug when I travel to different countries.”