White swaps rugby boots for school textbooks

Sean White feels pretty fortunate about the path his rugby career followed.

He saw the world, made great friends and learned a lot about what he wants to do in his life.

The scrum-half announced his retirement from international rugby last week and the flood of positive replies to his tweet caught him by surprise.

“The response was pretty powerful,” the Victoria native told The Province. “It got way more traction than I could’ve foreseen.”

After the Canadian men’s sevens squad failed at its final attempt in June to qualify for Rio — the women qualified and are considered strong medal contenders — White took time to consider his future.

“You look for another target,” he said. "It was a big year leading up to Rio. We put a lot of effort in.

“The Sevens World Cup (in San Francisco) is in two years, but I didn’t think I could hold out that long.”

For much of his time as a Canadian international, players based in this country were pure amateurs. In recent seasons, Olympic funding meant the players earned a small salary, but White said it was never about the money.

“We were strong because we didn’t have a paycheque,” he said.

His proudest rugby moment? Forget the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, where he faced the All Blacks. It’s the gold-medal win in the Pan Am Games in Toronto last year.

“Singing the anthem in front of home fans like that was amazing,” he said.

On the flip side, the toughest part was missing out twice in Rio qualifying tournaments over the past 12 months. First, it was the North American tournament last June, where Canada lost to the U.S. Then, again in June, the last-chance tournament for the final spot in the Rio tournament.

Both times, White was healthy, but both times he was left out of the squad, despite having played plenty over the preceding Sevens World Series seasons.

“That was the toughest pill,” he said. “You hope to put direction in the team’s outcome, but to come up short, at the final step, has been hard.”

He’s still going to play club rugby for James Bay in Victoria, where he’s always felt at home.

“It made it easier to know that I had a club to go to,” he said.

At many of the stops on the sevens series, the Canadians would work at one-day kids camps. Some kids would return year after year — and would remember White.

“The kids would say, ‘I remember you from last year, it was fun,’” he said.

It made an impact. White thought about coaching or teaching, but settled on social work as a way to make an impact on his community.

He starts a two-year program at Camosun College in January.

“I’m really excited for what’s ahead.”