Russell White was named the men's basketball coach in July 2019. The 13th head coach in program history is a 1994 graduate and competed with the basketball and golf teams while attending CLU. In 1995, White got his teaching credential from Cal Lutheran.
Before coming home to Cal Lutheran, Coach White was the head coach at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino for 13 seasons. During his tenure, the Celts went to the playoffs 12 times, including seven CIF semi-final appearances, seven state championship appearances, two CIF Southern Section titles, and two state titles. The Celts accumulated more than 22 wins per year.
Coach White has coached several players that went on to play professionally: Drew Housman (Calabasas/Harvard/Israel), Jerramy King (Crespi/Long Beach/Philippines), London Perrantes (Crespi/Virginia/NBA G-League/Greece), DJ Ursery (Crespi/Pacific/Chile), Max Heidegger (Crespi/UCSB/Windy City Bulls), De’Anthony Melton (Crespi/USC/Golden State Warriors), and Brandon Williams (Crespi/Arizona/Dallas Mavericks).
Immediately upon graduation from Cal Lutheran, White coached lower levels at Chaminade High School from 1994-99 and was the head coach at Calabasas from 1999-2006. He then accepted the job at Crespi in 2006, where he is the winningest coach in school history. He was named California State Coach of the Year in 2015 for Division 4 and then for the entire state in 2016.
Coach White has also been on The KYP Podcast, which is hosted by Nick Sainato, on July 13, 2020. He has been on the Elevate Your Game, with Todd Wilson on Sept. 25, 2023. He was recently on D3Hoopsville podcast on Jan. 15, 2023 as the Kingsmen cracked the top 20 for the D3hoops.com poll.
He and his wife Tara live in Thousand Oaks with their two sons, Peyton and Spencer.
What are they saying about Coach White
Palmer Chaplin - Former Player - 2019-20
"Coach White is passionate beyond measure. He loves basketball but he loves coaching young men into great players and great people even more."
Brandon Williams - Dallas Mavericks
"Coach White has been and is a great coach, everybody knows that. But it was him teaching me and how to be a man which is an equal talent that he has and has nothing to do with basketball."
De'Anthony Melton - Golden State Warriors
"Coach White pushed me to be better every time I stepped on the court. Being coached and being pushed is undervalued. Coach White helped me establish my foundation to lead me down the right path to be successful."
Logan McCullough - Former Player - 2019-23
“Coach white taught me not only how to be the best version of myself on the basketball court, but the best version of a man I could be off the court. He gives his players the tools to strive on and off the court and it’s his best quality. I was a part of his first 4 years as a college coach as well as his first SCIAC Tournament championship and I cannot wait to see what he continues to build at CLU.”
