Schools
Will White Steps Down as Boca Ciega's Girls Basketball Coach
In seven seasons as the Pirates girls coach, Will White guided his teams to no less than 20 wins a year. He cited family responsibilities for resigning.
In a surprising move, Boca Ciega High School girls basketball coach Will White resigned earlier this week as the Pirates coach.
White, a decorated social studies teacher at the school, flatly denied his resignation had any connection to his team's upset loss to Clearwater earlier this week which dashed the Pirates' hopes of making the state tournament for a record fourth consecutive season.
Rather, White said, this was a calculated decision between he and his wife for personal reasons.
In short, White wanted to spend more time with his young family.
"I have a six-year old and a four-year old and they are getting into soccer and Little League and things like that," White said. "Even the past couple of years it was pretty tough."
White said between his teaching responsibilities, his dedication to the Pirates basketball program and his family duties, he was struggling to find the time in the day.
"It was getting to be too much for one person," White said. "The basketball job with a program like Boca Ciega is a fulltime job alone. My mother passed away recently and it reinforced that life is short and I don't want to miss any minutes with my children."
"I have been going 100 percent for the past six or seven years and it's gotten to be too much."
White even explained how coaching a program as prominent as Boca Ciega can bog a person down. Coaching the games is the easy part.
"Yeah, coaching is easy but it's the added responsibilities like study halls and grade checks and helping the girls choose their colleges and running the summer sessions and fund-raising and running the summer camps and the city league and taking care of all the equipment... all of those things add up."
White, a three-time Pinellas County coach of the year, took over the program in 2003 and compiled a record of 193-45 record with six district championships. Each season under White the Pirates won no less than 20 games.
A former boys assistant basketball coach at Boca Ciega, White boasted that of the 27 seniors he coached in the past seven years, each one went on to college, 10 of them on academic schorlarships. A true basketball junkie, White vowed he's not riding off into the gulf sunset, he's just taking a break.
"I am not retiring by any means," White said. "I just have to have some family time. I will coach again."