Redemption: Whitaker Returns to Northwest as Assistant Coach

He was one of the most highly touted and decorated players to ever come out of Montgomery County—one of a select few who could boast winning a state title the same year being named 'All Met Player of the Year' by the Washington Post. After dominating on the high school stage, Northwest's Ike Whitaker seemed destined for a great career at the next level and possibly beyond.

But a few highly publicized turbulent turns while on scholarship at Virginia Tech—mostly related to alcohol abuse—ended Whitaker's college playing career prematurely, and the high school star's hopes of achieving athletic success in college were dashed.

Now, Whitaker has been given another chance and it brings him back to the place where it all began: Northwest High School. Whitaker is part of the coaching staff for his alma mater and is helping teach this group of Jaguars important lessons about football and, more importantly, life.

"I'm blessed to be back in this situation coaching at Northwest," said Whitaker.  "I've never been in a position before now where I was able to help kids and coach kids. And not just coach, but teach. I'm trying to teach them life lessons and I'm able to share the knowledge of what I've been through so they don't go down the wrong path like I did."

After leaving Virginia Tech, still confident he could play football somewhere, Whitaker landed with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) last spring. After a brief stint in the CFL, having appeared in four pre-season games, Whitaker left Montreal in July to return to Germantown. But, according to Whitaker, he wasn't done with football just yet. That's when he approached Northwest Athletic Director Jim Tapley and expressed an interest in returning to the program where he won 30 career games as a starting quarterback from 2002 to 2004.

"When he came to me this summer, I told him, 'I would love to have you come here to help these young men,'" Tapley said. "I said to him, 'you've had some ups in your life and you've had some downs.' But I think kids can benefit from learning from adults who have been through both good times and bad times. There's something to offer there." 

Whitaker said of his meeting with Tapley: "I told Mr. Tapley that, 'I've been through a lot in my life. But not for one second have I not been honest about the situation I had to deal with. Now it's behind me and I would love to coach and I want to be a positive influence on these kids.'"

After that initial meeting, Whitaker then met with other members of Northwest's administration, including Principal Lance Dempsey, and subsequently went through all of the steps to become certified to be a volunteer coach in the county as well as a paraeducator at Northwest.  As a paraeducator, Tapley said that Whitaker is as focused on teaching his players valuable lessons off the field as he is on, taking an active interest in each player's academic performance.

"I told him I was here to support him. He knew he was going to get some scrutiny and he was OK with that. But I told him that he wasn't alone," said Tapley, who fondly recalls watching Whitaker throw the ball 40 yards through the air while he was still in middle school. "He truly believes that he has a powerful life experience that could help young people make better decisions in their lives. He said to me, 'this is where I belong.'"