Hard work pays off for John Marshall’s Brian White

At his last school, Brian White lived in a dormitory at Independence Golf Club, hit the gym right after breakfast and took all his classes online. For one season, he was part of the basketball team at SportsQuest, the all-inclusive but short-lived athletics complex in Chesterfield County.

When the program shut down about a year ago after its first and only season, he moved with his mom to Richmond and enrolled at John Marshall. His team plays Great Bridge in the Group AAA state tournament Friday.


“I was a little disappointed, because it was a program that was going to keep going and get better each year,” White said.

SportsQuest fielded a team with some of the area’s best talent and opposed postgraduate teams, private schools and even public-school Meadowbrook. On the roster with White were Highland Springs freshman Curt Jones and L.C. Bird sophomore Marsellis Purvis. When the season was over, the team’s record was near .500, White said.

The team spent four hours a day running, lifting and practicing. And White, a 6-foot-7 forward, benefited from the extra work. He got better in practically every aspect of the game — ballhandling, rebounding, shooting, he said. Now as a senior at John Marshall, he averages 20 points and was named Colonial District player of the year.

“He’s a lot more versatile,” John Marshall coach Ty White said. “He’s both an inside and outside threat.”
Mike Davis, the coach of the SportsQuest team who now operates a training program called Three Point Line Sports, said White’s work ethic elevated his game.

“He was one of my best workers,” Davis said. “He did anything we ever asked him to do. Just a phenomenal kid.”

After breakfast, the team practiced and trained for about two hours in the morning. Next came class, then the day was wrapped up with two more hours of practice in the afternoon, according to Davis. Such extensive workouts could take a physical toll on his players.

“It’s physically and mentally grueling,” Davis said. “And he got through it with flying colors.”
While learning the curriculum on a computer required some adjustment, he got all A’s and B’s in his classes, he said. Though he took his classes online at Clover Hill High School, there were teachers who helped.
But money was an issue for SportsQuest. The students had to leave Clover Hill when teachers there stopped getting paid. Soon after the season ended, Steve Burton, the founder of the operation, told the kids the program would fold. Within a week, White was back home.

“It kind of crumbled,” Davis said.

During the summer, playing with his AAU squad, Team Loaded, White picked up about 10 scholarship offers. He ultimately decided on The Citadel because it wanted him the most. He expects to fit in with its style, which relies on forwards, he said.

When he joined the John Marshall team, he elevated it to one of the area’s best. The Justices qualified for the state tournament, but fell to Henrico in the Central Region title game.

“Making states is a big deal in this city,” White said. “We fell short of the regional championship, and that really hurt. But we’re back at it, and we’ve got a chance to win states.”

BY ERIC KOLENICH Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
Hard work pays off for John Marshall’s Brian White - Richmond Times-Dispatch: Boys Basketball