10 state titles. More than 500 wins. ‘Thirst for knowledge’ is key to Sharman White’s success

“I knew early on that I wanted to be a teacher,” White said. “It’s in my genes. For me, there’s something to teaching others, and showing them how to do things, as I try to figure it out myself as well. ... I can remember being 9 or 10, coaching kids who were 6 and 7. It could be any sport. Drawing up football plays in the dirt. I had a lot of nieces and nephews who were younger than me, and being the youngest of my siblings, I would babysit their kids. I liked giving others the opportunity to learn, which is how I look at coaching. The classroom is the gym, the homework is practice and the test is the game.”

White has won 10 state championships, including three in the past five years at Pace Academy, an Atlanta private school. This year’s Pace team is 19-4 and ranked No. 1 in Class 4A.

At Miller Grove in DeKalb County, White built its program from scratch and won seven titles in eight years, including six in a row, from 2009-16. He surpassed 500 career wins in November 2023.

In the 2016 GEICO Nationals (now sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods), he guided Miller Grove to a win over Nevada’s Findley Prep, marking the first and only time a public school has won a game in that tournament’s history, which began in 2009. He coached the boys East team in the 2024 McDonald’s All-American game. He guided youth national teams for USA Basketball from 2014-24 to a 31-0 record and five gold medals as an assistant and head coach. Now he serves on the USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team Committee.

Credit: Courtesy of Sharman White

Credit: Courtesy of Sharman White

White said there’s “no magic pill” for his success, only hard work, discipline and sacrifice. He credits the example his mother set, by supporting the household as a housekeeper at a hotel, for his work ethic.

“I watched my mom provide for me and my five other siblings, and it made me realize I had to work for the things I wanted,” White said. “Nothing is easy or free.”

White worked at the neighborhood grocery store, saving money to buy his first car. A year and $1,500 later, he bought a Volkswagen Scirocco.

“It was the best feeling in the world,” White said. “I worked as much as I could. Double shifts. Weekends. Holidays. The focus was that first car. I’ll never forget when I was handed the keys, and how gratifying it was.”

Carter Wilson is a fixture at Decatur High, where White graduated in 1990. From 1979 until his 2017 retirement, Wilson served as athletic director, boys basketball coach in separate stints, and as an assistant on the boys team. He took Decatur to back-to-back semifinals appearances in 2001-02, and was inducted into the Georgia Athletics Directors Association Hall of Fame in 2018. He’s known White his entire life, from their days living in Decatur public housing, and the two maintain a close relationship.

“We were all living in public housing, and Sharman’s success is one of the things we’re most proud of,” Wilson said. “He’s now a coach on the national level, and he’s still just Sharman White from Decatur. ... He reminds me a lot of myself. You have to understand Decatur. It was one of the hotbeds for basketball starting in the 1950s, all the way up. There’ve been a lot of great players, but also a lot of great coaches.”

Wilson coached Georgia State men’s basketball from 1994-97, and while volunteering at a basketball clinic at Georgia, White left him with the impression he would be a successful coach one day.

“Sharman was there, again, because of that thirst for knowledge,” Wilson said. “He’s always trying to get more knowledge. I had mentioned some things during my presentation, and after the clinic he came up to me and asked for a copy of it. Now, a lot of guys will come up to you at these things and talk, and nothing happens. When I got home, the first call I saw was from Sharman White, reminding me to send that practice plan. At that time, I knew he was a guy destined to be very good in this profession.”

White graduated from Georgia Southern in 1995, then quickly landed his first coaching gig as an assistant at Bunche Middle. He planned to spend a few seasons as an assistant before pursuing a head coaching job, but that changed when the coach stepped down after White’s first season.

“He asked if I wanted to take over,” White said. “Of course, I said, yes. I didn’t know how ready I was, but I was driven to be the best coach I could be.”

White’s first season at Bunche resulted in a losing record, but in six years he won two middle school championships. In the summer of 2001, North Atlanta principal George Rutledge hired White to be its head coach, but fate had other plans. After White already had started working with the team through summer league activities and parent meet-and-greets, Rutledge wound up at Carver-Atlanta shortly after White was hired. Rutledge’s successor rehired the previous head coach and White was left without a job.

Once at Carver, Rutledge again offered White a head coaching job, and again he accepted, though this time reluctantly.

“I spoke with my mentors and they said it was a great chance to cut my teeth,” White said. “They’d won three games the year before, but they were a storied program in the ’60s and ’70s. I remember vividly, the day after I took the job, trying to make that team as successful as I could. That first year, we won 11 games but the next year we came within two games of state.”

In White’s final year at Carver, in 2004, he guided the Panthers to their first championship appearance since 1969.

White’s success at Carver led to the opportunity he’d been working toward, the opportunity to build a program from scratch at the newly opened Miller Grove. In addition to the championships White won with the Wolverines, he went 263-46 in his 10 seasons in Lithonia.

“I inherited everything at Carver,” White said. “With this particular venture, I got to build from scratch. Things like conditioning, strength and training practices. I constructed a program, defined what it is I wanted our program to stand for, and I did that day by day, brick by brick, with great people assisting me.”

The Wolverines’ inaugural season in 2004 saw ninth and 10th graders play both a JV and varsity schedule and the program took off from there, reaching the second round in 2006, the semifinals in 2008 and the first of six consecutive championships in 2009.

In 2016, after winning his seventh title for the Wolverines, then their historic win at the GEICO Nationals, White left Miller Grove for Georgia State, where he served as an assistant for two seasons under Ron Hunter, reaching the NCAA tournament in 2018.

Previously, White said he turned down assistant opportunities at Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State and Memphis.

“I felt the timing was right, coming off another state title and the GEICO win,” White said. “It was a tough decision, but it felt right. My family wouldn’t have to move, my kids could go to the same school, and I could go to any gym in the state and recruit.

“... But I always felt my heart was with high school basketball.”

White accepted the Pace Academy job ahead of the 2018-19 season. The Knights were a year removed from back-to-back state titles with Wendell Carter and coach Demetrius Smith, at the time the only titles for a program that launched 1958. With Carter headed to Duke and eventually the NBA, White was brought in to maintain a championship level program, not build one from scratch.

“Pace Academy welcomed me with open arms, for who I am, and I respected that,” White said. “The parents, the players, the community, they all respected me and the decisions I’ve made. Decisions I felt would allow Pace to continue to thrive.”

With White’s arrival at Pace Academy came change. White thought there were too many roster spots and decided to make what he called some tough cuts. For the players that remained, it was about getting acclimated to White’s system.

In White’s first season, they reached the playoffs. The next two seasons ended with state championships.

“It was incredible,” White said of the championships. “My first year here, we lost in the first round as the higher seed to Hart County, who went on to the title game. Winning that first state title tied a knot in all the things we’d done to get into that position, not just as a staff, but as players and as a program. It made the community and players feel like we did the right things.”

Aidan Saunders, who played for White at Miller Grove from 2014-16 before playing collegiately at Oral Roberts, is a member of White’s staff at Pace Academy.

“Even being at my highest level in college, coach White ranks first for me,” Saunders said. “In every culture I’ve been a part of, from AAU on, he’s second to none. He’s just so organized, and passionate, and cares about every detail with every player. His passion can’t be measured, but you can feel the impact when you go to a (junior college) practice or somewhere else, and see how it’s run there. When I got to college, there was no drastic difference because he prepared me. Playing for him is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because of what he provides.”

Saunders spoke of White’s open-door policy that many have taken advantage of, whether it was to talk about a bad practice or game, or something positive like a scholarship offer. Or, even something not basketball related at all.

“All players know they can have the same relationship with him,” Saunders said. “There’s no favoritism, and that helps the team grow comfortable, knowing he cares for all of us the same.”

Credit: Courtesy of Sharman White

Credit: Courtesy of Sharman White

White’s teachings go beyond the players on his team. He participates in clinics, camps and speaking engagements. He’s created instructional videos and is in constant communication with other coaches, sharing his philosophies while taking in the experiences of his peers.

One of those coaches is Larry Thompson at Wheeler. He met White while he was an assistant at M.L. King Jr. High in the mid-2000s, and White was at Miller Grove, and their relationship continued to grow as Thompson climbed the coaching ranks at Greenforest Christian and Wheeler. If White is the standard, Thompson has emulated it, winning five state titles in nine years, from 2016-23.

“He’s just a good dude,” Thompson said. “He doesn’t do it for the likes or the cameras. He’s just passionate about the game and about being a mentor.”

White’s coaching network opened doors to another unique opportunity.

While at Miller Grove, in early fall of 2014, White was invited to coach a minicamp and accepted. Unaware, he was blindly auditioning for a spot on the coaching staff for the 2015 USA Basketball U-16 team’s qualifying tournament. Three weeks after the minicamp, White got a call from B.J. Johnson, national team assistant director for USA Basketball, with an offer to join the staff.

“I got the call at Miller Grove and I was yelling, ‘Yes!,’ in the hallway,” White said. “I was elated to get the opportunity.”

USA Basketball youth coach director Don Showalter is a 10-time gold medalist coach and a high school coach of 42 years, going 601-346 in that time. What stands out to Showalter about White is how he rallied the U-16 team against Canada in Argentina.

“There was a game that was probably the most intense we’ve had, and we’ve won several gold medals, but we were trailing Canada 23-2 after one quarter,” Showalter said. “We’d never lost a game with the junior national team, so this was a big moment for us. Sharman stayed positive with the kids and they picked up on his calm demeanor. I wasn’t as calm. But he sensed what the players needed. We got to within 10 by halftime and won by 15. To me, that was a great example of how he really helped the players with their confidence and overall attitude.”

Showalter said both he and White are “steak connoisseurs,” and when Showalter is in Atlanta they’ll hit up their favorite spots of Houston’s or Bones.

Steaks, along with golf, are some of the few hobbies White enjoys away from basketball. Even golf, however, ties into his basketball mentality.

“It puts you in a position where you have to lock in and concentrate,” he said. “I tell that to my guys. It tests every fiber in your being to try and get your swing right.”

White and his wife, Jameka, have a 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son. Making time for them in addition to all of his professional obligations can at times be a balancing act.

“The kids have been a part of this since they were born and they, along with my wife, make sacrifices, day-in and day-out,” White said. “I make sure to prioritize my time with them, and a lot of coaches come to me for advice on how I do it. There’s no magic pill, it’s just a commitment to being present with my family, and present when I’m working on my craft.”

White said he’s not sure how much longer he’ll coach, but it’s unlikely he’ll step down before his son graduates high school.

“I really want to stick around long enough to coach him, then see what things look like after that,” White said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with kids coaching them over my career and I’ve always wanted to do that with my own son.”

On Tuesday, the Knights beat Creekside 78-34 for their third straight win. They have two more regular season games against Midtown and Jackson in Region 4-4A, where they’re 12-0. Though the Knights are the top-ranked team, White views them as the hunters, not the hunted, because of their second-round exit in last year’s 4A playoffs.

Another championship for the Knights, however, would be their fourth in sixth seasons, so they may have a target on their back regardless.

“We don’t look at it like we’re the target,” White said. “We’re not the defending state champions. The rankings might say we’re No. 1, but until the state champion (North Oconee) is dethroned, you can’t really talk about who’s No. 1. We are laser-focused on being the best we can be. I feel good that we have a shot, but we’re taking nothing for granted. We want to be there at the end.”