Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
White, winner of 5 titles, retires
Sherry White believes she consistently received 100% from her players whenever they stepped on the basketball court.
It took only 99.9% certainty to get White off the court.
The 2019 Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee decided to call it a career Wednesday after 38 years as a girls basketball head coach.
“It’s a bit of a shocker to me because I thought I’d never retire,” she said with a laugh. “I could never actually see myself doing it, let alone visualize it.
“But then, the more I sat out here at our home on Lake Hamilton, it started to hit me. My husband,
Gary, asked me in late
March if I thought I could retire like this, right now, and I would tell him I was about 50-50.
“A week later, he asked again and I told him it was about 70-30. But then all of a sudden, it became 99.9% that I could do this every day.”
The Texas native, who has won five state titles, has coached at six schools. She spent the past five years turning Russellville into a perennial contender. The Lady Cyclones posted winning seasons in four of her five years, and she guided them to a Class 6A runner-up finish in 2016.
Prior to her stint at Russellville, White coached at Mountain Home (1982-85), Hot Springs (1985-94), Hot Springs Lakeside (1994-99), Harrison (1999-2004) and
Fort Smith Southside (2004-2015). She compiled a 593-361 record, and captured her first state championship in 1990 at Hot Springs. She won four more at Harrison over her five-year tenure.
White, the second-leading scorer in Arkansas Tech University women’s basketball history, said she left Russellville and headed to Hot Springs on March 12 to attend the high school basketball state finals, but after the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close the next week, it allowed her to have some extended time at her lake house.
“I haven’t been back to Russellville since, except to put my grades in a few times,” she said. “I left here 20 years ago, but my husband stayed because he’s got a business here. So we ultimately decided that we’d live weekend to weekend … either one of us or both of us have been commuting. We’ve been doing that for 20 years.
“I kept hearing that we probably wouldn’t be going back to school, too, so I decided to just move my stuff back here. It’s actually been in the back of my mind for about a year when everybody else in my buddy group was either starting to retire or talking about it. Now seemed like the perfect time for me.”
Russellville Athletic Director Johnny Johnson said he understands White’s decision.
“We were very fortunate to be able to have Coach White come to Russellville to finish her career up, that’s how I look at it,” he said. “She’s a legend. It was ironic because she went to Arkansas Tech and played there, so she was familiar with Russellville anyway. When we hired her, her daughter was playing for Arkansas Tech, so it was a really good fit and a good time for her to come.
“One of the best things about her, though, is that Sherry has no ego. She is just as nice of a person as you’ll ever want to be around. She was a team player that supported all of our athletic programs. She has just been an asset to us.”
White noted her retirement will give her a chance to watch her daughter, Calli, and son, Chase, fulfill their dreams of becoming basketball coaches.
But she’ll miss the relationships she’s developed throughout the profession.
“That’s what it’s always been about,” she said. “Those relationships with the players, the other coaches, the staff, the people around you. That’s special, and there’s no replacing that. The fun
I had with the players, that’s what makes the job enjoyable.
“So I can truly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and that goes for everywhere I’ve coached. It’s been great, and all those people that I met along the way made it that much better.”