Mike White has been to the WCWS six times and was a legendary softball player. His journey toward the top of college softball is almost impossible to believe.
Mike White went from a management career in New Zealand, to owning small businesses in Iowa, to coaching Texas' softball team to the Women's College World Series. Dave Wilson is an editor for ESPN.com since 2010. He previously worked at The Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Sun., Mike White dreamed of playing for the New Zealand soccer team, only to see his invitation upended by civil unrest in Fiji.
It wasn't until a conversation with legendary Tennessee co-coach Ralph Weekly more than 25 years ago sent him down a path to coaching. Ralph Weekly met White in Hawaii in 1997 while working with USA Softball as the director of its national teams. He knew of him because of his prowess as a pitcher but really hadn't spent any time with White. But what he saw impressed him.
"There were a lot of teams here that had guys come in from New Zealand for years," Ogden said."The majority of these guys would come in and they play one season here and then they'd go to Decatur or Sioux City, or someplace else that maybe offered them a little bit more money the next year. But Mike was different right from the start. He got really engaged in the community, went to one of the small colleges we have here in town, met a girl and married her.
"I didn't want to start at a traditional bottom rung," White said."If someone wanted to take a gamble on me and get me into like a Power 5 program or a top D-I program, I was willing to make that jump." And build he did, including Oregon opening a new $17.2 million softball stadium in 2015. White's success -- he was a three-time Pac-12 coach of the year and took the Ducks to five College World Series appearances -- drew the attention of the Longhorns, who had slipped behind the Sooners after winning four Big 12 titles between 2002 and 2010, but none since.
"I knew it was going to be tough facing that traditional power," White said." in her 29th season and built that program to what it is, like a dynasty. The thing about Oklahoma is they're not staying status quo. They keep getting better, they keep pushing the envelope, which I admire. They're out there recruiting, they're out there doing all the things you need to do to stay on top.
"There's a whole bunch of people that you make yourself up ," White said, naming coaches like Wooden and Alabama's Nick Saban,"but I can't be them. I've got to be who I am. You always have those regrets as afterthoughts. I'm working on controlling that, but yet not changing what makes me effective. I've got to work on being a little more eloquent with it.
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