Miller Grove’s Sharman White interested in Georgia Tech assistant job
One of the most successful high-school coaches in Georgia history is intrigued by the possibility of a spot on new Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner’s staff.
“Of course I’m interested,” Miller Grove High coach Sharman White said. “I think it’d be an opportunity if things were right.”
White would have much to offer Tech and Pastner, hired from Memphis April 8. White has led Miller Grove to seven state championships in the past eight years. He has developed a number of major-conference signees, including Tony Parker (UCLA), Mfon Udofia (Tech), Donte Williams (Georgia) and 2016 state player of the year Alterique Gilbert (Connecticut).
His coaching acumen has been recognized by USA Basketball, for which he has been an assistant on the under-16 and under-17 national teams. He also was in New York this past weekend coaching in the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game. The connections and entrée that he could lend to Pastner as a successful, knowledgeable and respected member of the state prep basketball community are obvious.
Pastner said that he “needs a guy that does know the scene in Atlanta. I mean, I know it, but I need someone who knows it inside and out.”
Not having coached at the college level, White would be an unconventional hire. But Pastner has said that he is not shutting the door on anybody. Pastner himself started out as an AAU coach (incredibly, while he was still in high school). Further, while at Memphis, he hired a Memphis high-school coach, Keelon Lawson, who happened to be the father of three elite recruits, the elder two of whom are now at Memphis. White and Pastner know each other well, as Pastner has recruited metropolitan Atlanta frequently.
“I think it’s something that he would have to learn how to do as far as recruiting and player development, things of that nature,” Greenforest Christian Academy coach Larry Thompson said. “I do think he would be successful. I mean, the guy’s been a winner all his days.”
White said he has previously been offered a job at the college level and was a finalist for another. He’s interested by the college level, but not desperate to get there.
“I love what I do now,” he said. “I’m in a great situation.”
Still, White, 43, was born and raised in Atlanta and remembers well when Tech was at its height under former coach Bobby Cremins.
“It’d be great to try to get things back going,” White said.
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
