Buddy White resigns as Reynoldsburg Raiders football coach after 11 seasons
With Reynoldsburg City Schools embroiled in a teachers strike and with his football team struggling, Buddy White told his players late in the 2014 season that he was planning to step down as coach.
The Raiders finished just 3-7 but won their final two games, prompting White to return in 2015.
He’s glad he reconsidered his decision.
“(The 2014 season) was the year we had the teachers strike during the season and that was the most difficult season I’ve ever had in all my years of coaching,” White said. “The kids would be home all day and I didn’t know what to do to get things turned around and help them get focused, and I started blaming myself for it. I did tell the kids I wouldn’t be back, but the last thing I wanted them to do was think I gave up on them. ... I’m glad I didn’t leave those kids.”
White led the Raiders to the playoffs the next year and ended up sticking around for another six seasons before telling his players Dec. 6 that he was stepping down, ending his 11-year tenure as coach.
Throughout the 2021 season, during which the Raiders finished 5-6 overall but earned the program’s fourth playoff win, White was battling a back issue. It got so bad that he typically would spend most of his team’s practices sitting in a golf cart, lacking the mobility he believes is necessary for him to continue being a head coach, at least for now.
White hopes his back pain will be alleviated enough that he can return to the sideline as an assistant — possibly as soon as next season — as he eyes extending a 36-year coaching career that includes him guiding the Raiders to a 67-46 record with five playoff appearances and seven winning seasons.
“He was just a good-spirited guy who loves having fun,” senior quarterback Dijon Jennings said. “He’d do anything for his players outside of football and is overall a great guy.”
White led the Raiders to a 7-4 bounce-back season in 2015 that included making the Division I, Region 3 playoffs, the second postseason berth in program history. The first came in 2001 under Tony Pusateri.
Reynoldsburg fell just short of making the postseason the next two years but put together its best season in 2018, going 10-2 and capturing at least a share of its first league championship since 1993. The Raiders shared the OCC-Ohio Division title with Lancaster and reached a regional semifinal.
That season also marked the only time in program history that the Raiders beat both Pickerington Central and Pickerington North in the same year.
After going 7-4 in 2019, Reynoldsburg went 4-4 in 2020 and then lost its first four games this fall before bouncing back to win four of its final five of the regular season and finish second (4-1) in the OCC-Buckeye behind Central (5-0).
The Raiders were the ninth seed for the Region 3 playoffs but crushed eighth-seeded and host Hilliard Davidson 34-3 in their playoff opener Oct. 29 before falling at top-seeded Upper Arlington 31-12 on Nov. 5 in a regional quarterfinal.
“We started out 0-4, but in three of those games we lost by a total of four points,” White said. “We kept losing those close games but the kids stuck together. They didn’t give up.
“I had a lot of fun. I can’t thank Reynoldsburg enough for the opportunity to lead the program. When I first got there, they were perennial losers and we got the right kind of kids in there that you can win with. It was just an incredible experience. The main reason I’m leaving is that I struggled this year with my back and I just said that until I can get it fixed, I need to step down. My goal is to be on the sidelines somewhere next season. I resigned, but I didn’t retire.”
Perhaps the biggest part of White’s legacy is the turnaround the Raiders experienced during his tenure.
After going 49-31 from 1988-95 under Bob Stuart and 36-26 from 1996-2001 under Pusateri, the Raiders were a combined 27-63 over the next nine seasons with just one winning record before going 6-4 in White’s first season in 2011 and 7-3 the next season.
White’s given name is Theodore, but he has been called “Buddy” for as long as he can remember.
A 1975 Uhrichsville Claymont graduate, he gained assistant experience at West Virginia State as well as his college alma mater, Salem, before assisting at the prep level at Watkins Memorial, Marion-Franklin, Hartley and Reynoldsburg.
“I know coach White has had a back problem so it didn’t totally surprise me (that he resigned), but at the same time, there’s a lot of sadness on my part,” athletics director Jack Purtell said. “He’s an even better person with how much he cares for the kids and the pride he’s restored in Reynoldsburg football. We had to have a change in the culture and he just led us to a way healthier environment for the whole football program. I’m appreciative of what he did for our program and our communities. He’s definitely left the program in a better place.”
julrey@thisweeknews.com
@UlreyThisWeek
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Buddy White resigns as Reynoldsburg football coach after 11 seasons
