'This is home for me': White's career comes full circle as new Claymont football coach

To use a baseball analogy, the Claymont Mustangs know they hit a grand slam in the hiring of new head football coach Theodore “Buddy” White.

White was officially approved as the school’s new head football coach when the Claymont Board of Education met in special session Thursday.

White is an alumnus of Claymont and played for the Mustangs. He returns to his alma mater after serving as an assistant and head coach at some of Ohio’s big-school football programs and enjoyed success at the highest level.

“We had a lot of good applicants for the position and obviously Buddy stood out,” said Claymont athletic director Justin Jones. “If you look at his resume and his history, he’s a winner. He’s won everywhere he’s been, whether he’s been an assistant coach or a head coach, and then he’s from the area — he’s one of us. He played at Claymont.”

Claymont formed a committee in December and had approximately 20 applicants for the position, narrowed it down to four, and White was selected from the four finalists.

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“You know what, this was part of my bucket list,” White said. “I started my career playing seventh-grade football here at Claymont, and it’s so exciting to know I’m going to wind my career up here at Claymont. This is home for me, it’s always been home. I know so many people here, so many people that still live here that I went to school with. I feel at home when I’m here.”

“We’re just really excited to have Coach White here with us,” Jones said. “He brings with him accolades that are very impressive.”

White, who will be moving back to Tuscarawas County from the Columbus area, is a players’ coach and is loved by all those who have played for him.

“I want to get to know the kids, I’m meeting with them and I’m really excited, I’m going to get these kids excited and see where that takes us,” said the new Mustangs’ mentor. “The secret to winning is once you get the kids believing that they can do it and they’re willing to put the time in to do it, that’s when special things happen.”

White was a star receiver at Salem, W Va., College where he earned his degree. After graduation, he had a tryout in 1979 with the Dallas Cowboys.

“Tom Landry was the head coach, and they still had Tony Dorsett and all those guys, and I went to training camp with them and was released toward the end of training camp,” White said. “I knew I was going to be released because they were going to keep the same receivers because they had Drew Pearson, Butch Johnson, Tony Hill and Golden Richards.”

As a coach, White knows how to win and knows how to get the most out of his teams. In 11 seasons as head coach at Division I Reynoldsburg, he turned a program around that had endured many losing seasons before he became head coach and transformed them into a consistent winner. And not just a winner — a playoff winner. He compiled a record of 67-46 with many playoff appearances and wins for the Raiders.

White won more games than any coach in Reynoldsburg history. He was named the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association State Division I Coach of the Year following the 2018 season. The Raiders were 10-2 that season, finished first in Division I Region 2 and earned a 52-0 playoff win over Toledo Start before being eliminated from the postseason in a 10-0 loss to Olentangy Liberty. White was also named Central District Division I Coach of the Year in 2015 as well as 2018. He was also an assistant coach on the Columbus Bishop Hartley staff when the Hawks won the D4 state championship in 2010.

White was most recently an assistant football coach at Hilliard Bradley, which advanced to the Division I state semifinals this past season. Bradley won playoff games against Newark (42-0), Westerville North (27-22), Pickerington North (19-0) and Upper Arlington (35-28 in OT) before the Jaguars fell in a state semifinal to Lakewood St. Edward (26-3).

White talked of two coaches in particular who molded his coaching style and philosophy.

“There are some high school coaches I learned so much from,” he said. “I was on the staff in 2010 when Bishop Hartley won the Division IV championship, and Brad Burchfield, I learned so much from him, and another one I learned a lot from was Mike LoParo at Hilliard Bradley. We went to the Final 4 at Hilliard Bradley this year.”

The new Claymont coach talked about what offense and defense he plans to run with the Mustangs.

“Offensively, once I get to know the kids, if I’ve got a good line, we’ll run it a little bit more, and if not, then we’ll make sure that we have a lot of play-action with the passing game and things like that,” he said. “We’re going to spread things out. There’s no use bringing them in tight and running up against a brick wall. We’ll spread them out and find kids that can turn the corner and find some good, tough kids and put them out there.”

“Defensively we’ll be either a 4-3 or a 3-4,” White said. “If we play against a team that likes to throw the ball a lot, we’ll be more in a 3-3 stack with two high. A lot is going to be based on our talent.”

White takes over the Mustangs’ coaching reins from Eric Henry, who served as head coach the past five seasons. The Mustangs were 8-39 during that time, including a 3-7 record this past season.

The Mustangs averaged a solid 22.7 points-per-game this past season on offense but surrendered 30.3 points-per-game on defense.

Claymont will kick off the Buddy White era on Friday, Aug. 23 in its season opener against the visiting Harrison Central Huskies.

“I made it very clear in the interview that this is not a stepping stone job for me, this is a destination job,” White said. “I started my football career as a seventh-grader here at Claymont and went on to play college football and had pro football opportunities, coached college and high school football and this will be my last job. This is where I’m going to end up my career and that makes me so excited — it brings everything full circle. I’m going to work that much harder, mainly because of the pride I have for this area.”

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Claymont high school football hires Buddy White as new coach