MidValleySports.Com

Josh Ouellette

(Former MVS Staffer Josh O. spent 2016 as part of the Buena Park staff…he offers this on White’s departure.)

By Josh Ouellette

Buena Park High School head football coach Anthony White has decided to step down following a 2016 season that saw the Coyotes fall to eventual CIF Southern Section Division 3 champion Edison in the quarterfinals.
“A lot of coaches around this time step down or retire,” White said. “I feel like I’m stepping up. I’m stepping up as a father and husband.”

Family is an important aspect for White, which may sound cliché, but it is what drives him everyday. And with the recent birth of his daughter, Olivia Grace Le White, and his three-year-old son Anthony II at home, he and his wife, San, felt it was time for this move.

The White family

“Anyone that knows where I came from to where I am now, knows how much family and being a father and husband mean to me,” White explained. “They know why and will understand my decision.”

But it is the family atmosphere that White sought to and successfully created at Buena Park that also made it easy for him to walk away after seven highly successful seasons.

“Coming to Buena Park with no assistant coaches and being the youngest and only African-American head coach in Orange County, creating a family atmosphere was the main goal for me,” said White.

White has stressed that it is only to have more time to spend with his family and friends, and that it wasn’t any other external or internal factors, that led to his decision.

“We’ve had great support from administration, teachers and parents and we sent over 40 kids on scholarships to college,” White said.” We have gone from in the 12,000s nationally to the 500s, and from the 900s statewide to the 50s, from the bottom 10 in Orange County to the top 10.”

White is clearly leaving the Coyotes in a good position, with four-straight CIF Playoffs appearances (overall six out of seven during White’s tenure) and a new state-of-the-art stadium and facilities on campus slated to complete construction by 2019.

BP also won its first Freeway League title in 25 years thanks to a pivotal 27-13 win over La Habra in week nine. For the league crown and accomplishments of the football program as a whole, White and the team was recently honored by the Buena Park city council and given the key to the city.

All of the accomplishments listed directly above were goals for White when he took over before the 2010 season, but there was another main goal for the father of two.

“A CIF championship would’ve been nice,” White quipped. “But I never coach to put rings on fingers or banners in a gym.  I coach to make better fathers and husbands. I feel like I became a better father and husband coaching here at Buena Park and that I accomplished that mission with the student athletes as well.”

White hasn’t ruled out coaching again in the future, but doesn’t have a set plan for getting back into the game.

“Right now I am just going to focus on my family,” White said. “I will still be teaching at the school. But down the line I feel whether it be local politics, whether it be college coaching, whether it be high school coaching, I’ll be back at it again and it will be down one of those paths.”

Despite rumors of other offers, he allows and doesn’t dwell on this message board chatter.

“People are going to write stuff no matter what,” White said. “People have always had an opinion about me no matter who I really am or what I was really capable of. Every year there have been opportunities for me at the collegiate or high school level. But at this time I feel like the best position for me is to continue to be the best father and husband that I can be.”

White finishes with an overall record of 59-22 with the Coyotes, including back-to-back CIF semifinals appearances in 2014 and 2015, and steps down as the winningest coach in Buena Park High School history. He was also named the Buena Park High School and Fullerton Joint Union High School District Teacher of the Year for the 2015-16 school year.