Blue Star Productions

Willette White

Willette White brings 30 years of collegegiate coaching experience to Blue Star Basketball, with 20 of them being in the Pac-10 Conference. White most recently was with the University of Oregon for three years. White spent extensive time working with Oregon's perimeter players as well as making a difference in the Ducks' recruiting classes.

It only took one season for White’s influence to make an impact, as Oregon’s 2007-08 freshman recruiting class was ranked 31st in the nation by Blue Star after the first three recruits of the six-member class inked during the early signing period.

One year later, the Ducks again inked three of their four recruits during the early signing period. The quartet includes a Street & Smith All-American honorable mention, a NorCalPrep.com top-15 prospect and a Big 8 Conference MVP.

Former University of Oregon's Head Coach Bev Smith said it best “Anyone who follows women’s basketball knows Willette White, as a recruiter she is well respected both regionally and nationally, and is a tremendous ambassador of the game and the coaching profession.”

Prior to her arrival at Northeastern where she was the head coach for six seasons, where she compiled a record of 64-109, White spent seven seasons as associate head coach at UCLA. She joined the staff of then-Bruins’ head coach Kathy Olivier in May of 1993 and immediately went to work enticing top high school players to the UCLA campus.

In 1999-2000, the Bruins finished fourth in the Pac-10 Conference and made the NCAA tournament for a third straight year. The highlight of UCLA’s three-year string came during the 1998-99 campaign, when the Bruins won their first Pac-10 championship and proceeded to advance to the national quarterfinals as a No. 3 seed. It was UCLA’s first-ever trip to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, and the Bruins finished with a mark of 26-8 after losing to Louisiana Tech, one step from the Final Four, in the West Region final.

White helped mold several standout players at UCLA, most notably Maylana Martin, who was a first round pick of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. Martin was a Kodak All-American, a four-time All-Conference pick and the 1999 Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Prior to her stop in Westwood, White spent eight seasons at Washington. During her time in Seattle, the Huskies compiled a 181-59 record (.754), won three conference titles, and reached the NCAA Tournament seven times.

Washington’s finest season during White’s tenure came in 1990 when the Huskies were Pac-10 co-champs, earned a top seed in the NCAA tournament Mideast Region, finished with a school-record 28 wins and were ranked third in the nation at the end of the year, the team’s highest ranking ever. The Huskies handed national champion Stanford its only loss of the season.

A native of Tacoma, Wash., White was a standout performer at Clover Park High, graduating in 1977. From there, she attended Green River Community College for two years before transferring to Idaho.

She played on two straight AIAW Region Nine title teams (1980 and 1981) and was named a Div. II All-American. White served as team captain at Green River and Idaho and was voted Most Inspirational all four years of her college career.

In 1992, she was inducted into the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges’ Hall of Fame.

White received a bachelor’s degree in General Studies from Idaho in 1982 and went on to earn a master of arts degree in Athletic Administration from Ohio State in 1984. She presently resides in Oregon.