JAMES GRADY
Coaches are leaders and, for many, heroes, from the little leagues where they shape and guide our youth to the Olympics and the pros, where they lead some of our society’s most influential role models. In our current athletic landscape, openly LGBT coaches are rare, which makes Vanderbilt’s selection of Stephanie White as its new head coach of women’s basketball all the more remarkable. Last year, White, head coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, came out as a lesbian in protest of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In the coming months, White’s new role will no doubt make her a household name in Nashville. And there is no doubt that, as she leads Vanderbilt to victory, she will also become a role model, particularly for for LGBT youth in Tennessee and LGBT athletes across the country. THE EARLY YEARS White’s youth was dominated by sports. Growing up in the rural Midwest in the 1980s, options for girls in athletics were extremely limited. This didn’t stop White—she just went toe-to-toe with the boys. “When I first started playing
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organized basketball in the fourth grade, I played on the YMCA boys’ team in Danville, Illinois,” White said. And it wasn’t just basketball. “I was on the boys’ soccer team because, again, they didn’t have girls’ teams, and baseball. My dad coached a little league baseball team. So growing up I always had to play with the guys, because there just weren’t opportunities at that young age to play girls’ sports.” While it wasn’t unheard of, it wasn’t common either. “Usually I was one of a few girls,” she said, “but there weren’t any issues. Every once in a while you’d get boys heckling you, but once they realized you could play, they stopped. And that happened in nearly every sport, especially baseball more than anywhere else.” Proving herself with the boys cemented some lifelong friendships, she explained: “What’s fun is … a lot of these guys I grew up playing soccer with, I still keep in contact with… Same thing with my Y basketball teammates.” THE SCHOLARSHIP DREAM At a young age, White started to think about playing college ball. “I told my parents that I wanted to get a college scholarship,” she said, “and, of course, I
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think that they wanted to support my goal. But coming from a small town in that day and age it didn’t seem as realistic. But my parents did everything they could to put me in a position to get that scholarship: they took me to camps, they let me play AAU [Amateur Athletic Union Girls Basketball], and were out and involved in trying to get me to places where I might get seen.” In middle and high school, White joined the girls’ teams. Around this time, her dream of a college scholarship started to seem attainable. In middle school, she explained, “I got my first college letter, ironically from Louisiana Tech’s Nell Fortner, who became one of my college coaches [at Purdue], and I got a letter from Colorado.” Her high school career cemented that collegiate dream. “In Indiana at that time we didn’t have a classed basketball system, we were all once class, and I think we lost maybe nine games my entire high school career. We never won a championship, but at the same time it was a pretty successful high school career!” COLLEGE BALL Ultimately, White’s decision came down to Purdue versus Vanderbilt,
ironically, and Purdue won out. She joined a team just coming off a Final 4 appearance, and White’s freshman year the team was, on paper, one of the most talented in the country. But the team underperformed that year, and Purdue sacked coach Lin Dunn. White’s sophomore year thus began with a team in disarray: three scholarship players returned—plus two freshman recruits—and the team was rounded out by walk-ons. However, under the leadership of Nell Fortner, the Purdue women won the Big Ten title that year [1996-97]. “Then Nell Fortner left to become the Olympic coach,” White explained, “and Carolyn Peck, who was an assistant, took over for my last two years. So I played for three coaches in four years. We were fairly successful … won multiple Big Ten championships, and won a National championship my senior year.” White’s summary of her college career, particularly her senior year, is overly humble. That season, her team went 28-1 during regular season play, and the team won the 1999 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament—a first for Purdue women’s basketball. White was named National Player of the Year and Big Ten Player of the Year, among many other honors.
