Coach John White is a native of Neshoba County who graduated from Philadelphia High, where hw was a two-time All-Choctaw Conference and All-State basketball star. He was an All-Conference hoops player at East Central Junior College and MVP of the Mississippi College Choctaw basketball team. His coaching career started at Redwood High in Vicksburg after he coached the Mississippi College freshman team for one season in 1964. After being named head coach of the Warren Central boys basketball team, he led the Vikings to a record of 242-97, including 3 conference titles, 1 district crown, 1 South Mississippi runner-up finish, 1 South State title, a third-place finish in the Class 5A state tournament in 1973 and the State runner-up in Class 5A in 1974. Coach White was a three-time Conference Coach of the Year, and he served as head coach of the South All-Stars in the 1973 Mississippi High School All-Star basketball game. He was athletic director at Warren Central and for the Warren County School District from 1985 to 1996, and during his tenure, both of his high schools (Vicksburg and Warren Central) finished in the top five of Class 5A athletic programs in the 1990-1991 school year. In addition, Coach White helped organize the first girls high school soccer program in the state in 1988. He was named Mississippi Athletic Administraion Athletic Director of the Year in 1990, and he helped form the Central Mississippi Athletic Directors Association. Coach White departed athletics in 1996 and worked as an award-winning principal at Choctaw Central High from 1996 to 2005.