Anthony White is known for resurrecting the Buena Park High School football program. There’s a lot more to White than just being a football coach. Sure, people can point to the success of White as coach of the Coyotes and see instantaneous results out on the football field.
Anthony White is known for resurrecting the Buena Park High School football program. There’s a lot more to White than just being a football coach. Sure, people can point to the success of White as coach of the Coyotes and see instantaneous results out on the football field.
Since taking over the football program in 2010, White has compiled a 39-17 overall record in building the Coyotes’ football program into a Freeway League and CIF powerhouse. The year before White became the head coach at Buena Park High School, the Coyotes finished the season with a 2-8 overall mark. White’s imprint is all over the football program.
But as an educator at the school, White has become a symbol of success in the classroom as well. In March, White was recognized as the Fullerton Joint Union High School District Teacher of the Year, an honor that offers a more total look at White as an educator. The football field is merely an extension of White as a instructor.
White said his immediate reaction after finding out about the honor was heartfelt.
“I’m extremely humbled and honored,” White said. “It’s a great accomplishment, not only for myself, but for my peers in my department, and Buena Park High School.”
White is a social science teacher at Buena Park High School where he instructs students about history.
What exactly makes him stand out as a teacher? White said he has his ways of doing things, including using all of the resources made available to him.
“I think the teaching methods, the assignments of the lessons, the technology used in the classroom, things like that…when you talk about the classroom, just the overall roundedness of teaching abilities.”
When asked if coaching football is a branch of what he does with his students in his classes, White agreed with that assessment.
“Teaching is not only what I do in the classroom,” White said. “It’s all throughout the educational experience at Buena Park High School. I take it seriously and I understand the responsibility that I have.”
The drive to become a teacher had more or less with White wanting to impact the lives of young people much the same way he adults in that position mentored him. Growing up without his father being a regular member of the household, fueled White to want to do more for others.
“I always wanted to give back, growing up with an absentee father, growing up with a single-parent household,” White said. “Many teachers and coaches made a big impact on my life. I wanted to do the same, and have that ability to have that impact on others.”
As far as what motivates White? Everything, he said.
“My motivation everyday is to be the best that I can be, to be the best coach, to be the best father, to be the best teacher, to be a community leader,” White said. “That’s what I want to be.”
And what he wants to be is to be there for his family, and also his adopted family at Buena Park High School, including the young men he leads on the football field.
“Leadership is something that I have studied throughout history. Leadership is something that defines you, not only as a man, but being a community member, to incorporate positive thing in the community, because you have to get people involved in your vision. It kind of goes hand-in-hand of what we do on and off the field. It is what I do-on and off the field when it comes to leading young men, when it comes to leading my students or leading the community.”
The best lesson as an educator that White have learned is that everything comes together for good.
“You’re not too big for small things, and you’re not too small for big things,” said White.
