By Austin Meek for the Register Guard
Posted Nov 24, 2018 at 5:03 PM
Updated Nov 26, 2018 at 9:14 AM
Everyone who plays junior college basketball has a story.
Some players come straight out of high school, hoping to prove they can play at a higher level. Others are transfers looking for a fresh start. They come because of grades, they come to grow up, but the common theme is that no one plans to stay for long.
Lane Community College is no exception. The Titans roster features one returning player, two NCAA transfers and nine freshmen, including Will Graves — son of Oregon women's coach Kelly Graves — and Lucas Wilson, a former Churchill star looking to restart his basketball career.
Then there's the coaching staff, which includes Mike Nicksic — a longtime coach at Churchill, Pleasant Hill and Northwest Christian — and Matt Zosel, a graduate assistant on Oregon's Elite Eight and Final Four teams from 2016 and 2017.
In a locker room full of stories, it would be hard to top the story of Joe White, LCC's first-year head coach. White started his high school career in Pleasant Hill, graduated from Thurston, played at Southern Oregon and worked in sales before he landed a job in coaching.
White does everything at full speed, striding down the hallway at a pace that leaves a visitor several paces behind. That's how someone can try out several careers — White also trained to be a highway patrolman — and still become a head basketball coach at age 28.
"I always prided myself on being the hardest worker I ever met, on being able to look any man in the eye and tell him that nobody would ever outwork me," White said. "Those are very aggressive, borderline fighting words for a lot of people."
The best part of White's story is the year he spent playing in Ecuador and the dream-come-true scenario that led him to sign a professional contract.
It all started with one great pickup game.
White was spending a summer in Springfield between his sophomore and junior seasons at Southern Oregon, working a construction job during the day and organizing pickup games at night. He played with a regular group of guys, invitation only, so it was notable when he arrived one night to find several teams he didn't recognize.
White approached one group and asked if they wanted to play, but no one spoke English. He later learned the team was from Uruguay and had come to Springfield for the Pan-American Masters Basketball championships, which were held at Springfield High in 2010.
White approached another team and found one man who spoke English. The team was from Ecuador and agreed to play.
"By the grace of God," White said, "I played the best I could have possibly played."
White was in the zone: knocking down three-pointers, dishing assists, generally playing the game of his life. After the game, the team from Ecuador did something that only happens in the movies.
They offered him a professional contract on the spot.
"I said, 'Thank you, but I just know at this time that I have to finish my degree,'" White said. "They were adamant that I allow them to sell me on their opportunity."
The team was leaving town in three days and needed an answer. White was concerned that their offer wouldn't cover the cost of giving up his scholarship at Southern Oregon. He spoke to his coach, though, and they figured out a way for him to accept the contract and return to SOU when he was finished.
"I thought it was absolutely too good to be true," White said. "Looking into a little bit more, we did accept it."
That's how White ended up playing a year of professional basketball for Club La Salle in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As one of two American imports on the team, White helped Club La Salle make the playoffs for the first time in five years and advance to the league championship game.
When the team won its semifinal game, White said, fans came out of the stands and carried players away on their shoulders.
"It was the best time of my life," White said. "Hands down, not even close."
White returned to Southern Oregon after a year in Ecuador with the hope of landing another contract overseas after his college career. When that didn't work out, he trained for a law enforcement position before accepting a job in sales.
In 2014, White got a call from TJ Caughell, an assistant coach at Southern Oregon during White's playing days. Caughell had just landed the head coaching job at Tacoma Community College and offered White a spot on his staff.
White spent three years in Tacoma before returning to Lane County in 2017 to be an assistant at LCC. He was promoted to head coach when Bruce Chavka stepped down last March.
After a 12-16 finish last year, White hopes to jumpstart LCC with an infusion of talent. Along with overhauling the roster, White beefed up LCC's staff by hiring Nicksic and Zosel, who spent last year in Arizona coaching an AAU team, Jamal Murray Elite, after his GA stint at Oregon.
"Matt's been instrumental to our growth," White said. "The guys love him."
No one on the LCC roster will generate more intrigue than Wilson, a multi-sport star at Churchill who received Division I interest in both football and basketball.
Wilson signed with LCC in 2017 but elected not to play last season. He returned to the team last winter, and though he's been sidelined by an ankle injury in the preseason, White said Wilson is serious about getting his basketball career on track.
"He could have run track nearly anywhere in America and had tons of interest and offers for basketball as well," White said, noting that Oregon and Oregon State also recruited Wilson to play football. "He signed again last April for the class of 2018 and has been a guy that's been absolutely great for our program since he got here."
Getting players from disparate backgrounds to mesh — and mesh quickly — is the perennial challenge for a junior college coach. That's especially true this season at LCC with so many new faces surrounding a first-year coach.
After finding himself in the right place at the right time once before, White is confident it can happen again.
"If everybody buys in," he said, "we have a chance to be pretty special."
Maybe there's another story in the making.
Follow Austin on Twitter @austinmeekRG.
Email ameek@registerguard.com.