The man behind the Blue and Gold

Published 10:00 am Saturday, August 23, 2003

The walls of Bainbridge High School Athletic Director Neal White’s office look somewhat like a teenage sports fanatic’s bedroom.

Posters of great athletes past and present run from floor to ceiling, autographed photos fill in the in-betweens. An well-worn baseball mitt hangs above his desk and a signed blue-and-gold football helmet rests prominently amid the paperwork.

It’s clear who his heroes are — the young men and women at Bainbridge High School are the visages in the posters and photographs.

His face lights up when he recalls “the drive in ‘95,” a football playoff run after a 9-2 season where the Spartan gridders finally succumbed to O’Dea, or when he mulls the 2003 return of what he affectionately calls “the army” – the girls swim team that has been wildly successful at state in years past.

Coming into his 11th year as athletic director, and his 20th year at the high school, White is the man behind the coaches and players on the sidelines, on the courts and in the locker rooms.

He has seen the exaltations of state champions and the tears of almost-state champions.

He may well be Bainbridge High School athletics’ biggest fan.

White visualizes one of his favorite scenes: He imagines a spring day where there is a track meet being held. Girls lacrosse practice is going on past left field, there’s a baseball game taking place. Soccer teams are practicing on the lower fields and the softball fastpitchers are playing over in the corner field.

“That’s awesome,” White said. “A mass of humanity doing healthy things. I love looking out from the grandstands and seeing that.”

Coach to A.D.

It requires more than a love of sports to take the helm of a high school athletics program.

Athletic directors come from a number of different backgrounds – some are administrators with a limited sports knowledge, while others attend universities specifically to procure sports administration credentials. And then there are the teacher/coaches that come up through the ranks, having served on the sidelines for years before taking over as head of an athletic program.

White moved to Bainbridge Island from Shelton nearly 20 years ago with his wife Holly and daughters Danielle and Allyssa. He taught and coached in both Shelton and Vancouver before starting out in the phys-ed department at BHS.

Since then, the 49-year-old has spent copious amounts of time in both the classroom and on the playing field. He put in 14 years as the head football coach for the Spartans, also acting as the head baseball coach for six of those years. He was a head golf coach, spent two years as the ninth-grade basketball coach and a season as JV baseball skipper.

And if that weren’t enough sporting experience, in his time at Central Washington University White played four years of both baseball and football.

He has been around long enough to see former Bainbridge High students and players come back to the programs they started out in.

“(Head football coach) Andy Grimm was a senior my first year as football head coach,” said White. “Jake Haley was a quarterback. Jim West was in there as a corner and slotback.”

White returns to school in late August with his priorities set on the coaches. He spends time talking to them, making certain equipment has arrived and is being distributed. He asks them what they need and want, and makes sure that tryouts are giving kids a good shot if the coach must make cuts.

“Fall is really the time to gear things up,” said White.

He takes on issues large and small, from the daunting task of organizing schedules for Metro and non-league play, to the seemingly miniscule order of rounding up ticket-takers for sporting events.

“That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” White says with a laugh. “I spend a lot of time on the phone.”

But it’s not all deskwork — White gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor throughout the entire school year.

“I see tons of games,” he said. “I love playoffs. I get to see kids playing that I’ve been watching for three or four years and see their improvements.”

And there have been lots of improvements.

White has seen all five state swimming titles, and admits that before his oldest daughter started diving, he didn’t know what swimming was all about.

“I love the parents and the kids – it’s such a tightly knit group,” said White. “It’s all about performance.”

But you can’t spend 14 years coaching football without having a deep-seated passion for the game.

“I love football,” White says with a grin. “The atmosphere, the fans, the band. On a Friday night, the place is filled up and it’s happening in every town in America. That’s America to me, it’s a fabulous time.”

While the transition from teacher and coach to athletic director was a natural choice, White still sometimes longs for the good old days when he wasn’t so entrenched behind the scenes.

“The biggest thing I miss is the relationship and association with the kids when you’re coaching,” he admits.

Several of the yellowed notes and pictures in his office begin with the simple words, “Thanks, Coach White.”

He still teaches a weight-training class and independent study physical education classes, and acts as a liaison with the park district.

White also had a part in bringing to fruition both Memorial Stadium and the new Paski Gymnasium, which he calls “the most fabulous gym I’ve ever seen.”

The front office

If White is the high-scorer of Bainbridge High School athletics, the assist leader on the team would certainly be Mary Sue Silver – who White has dubbed the “kingpin.”

Silver has been athletics secretary for White for the duration of his tenure as A.D., with duties running the gamut from clerical to inspirational. She is also a part-time assistant coach for the cross-country team and a full-time swim team supporter.

Bainbridge High has 20 varsity sports sanctioned by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. There are also water polo, lacrosse and sailing teams – which are considered “club” sports. With nearly all sports having JV or C teams, there are almost 50 groups of kids and coaches to keep track of — more than 700 athletes in all.

“She bird-dogs everything and keeps me out of trouble. She does the things I would forget about.” said White.

“I’d be a basket case without her.”