The 1993-94 girls basketball season was a pretty good one for Allison (Lee) White.
As a senior at Columbus East, she led the Olympians to the state’s final four in the one-class system. At that final four, she was named the IHSAA Mental Attitude Award winner. Shortly after the season, she was selected to the Indiana All-Star team.
“My senior year was pretty much a dream season because we went to the final four and had that experience there,” White said. “It was a really special time.”
Now, as is the case with most Indiana All-Stars 25 years later, comes a selection to the Silver Anniversary Team. White is one of 17 players who graduated in 1994 to be recognized.
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While she was initially shocked to be chosen as part of the All-Star team in 1994, White wasn’t really surprised at the Silver Anniversary honor, which came on Monday.
“I think they do their best to try to run down all of the All-Stars,” White said. “I knew through different people that they usually take the 12 All-Stars, and they put a few more on there. But it doesn’t seem realistic because I don’t feel like I should be that old.”
White averaged 20 points and nine rebounds a game as a senior with the Olympians in earning All-State honors. Her 1,237 career points rank fourth on East’s all-time list, and her 810 rebounds rank second. She also holds the school’s single-season (69.2) and career (63.7) records for field-goal percentage and the single game (11 for 11) free-throw percentage record.
After graduation, White went on to play at Eastern Illinois, where recorded 1,057 points and 652 rebounds and started all but one game in her four years there, and that came after she tore ankle ligaments on the first day of a two-day tournament at Northwestern. She made the All-Tournament team in the Indiana University IU Classic as a freshman and was Academic All-Ohio Valley Conference as a senior in 1997-98.
White graduated from EIU with a degree in elementary education and middle school endorsement. She returned to Columbus and taught middle school math at Central for three years and Northside for 14 years before spending the past 2 1/2 years as a match teacher at Southside Elementary.
At EIU, White met her husband Brett, who is now an assistant girls golf and girls basketball coach at Columbus North. They have two daughters, the oldest of which is a sophomore on this year’s Bull Dog varsity girls basketball team.
Allison White has coached several Comets travel teams and has coached volleyball and basketball at St. Peter’s Lutheran School. She also is a radio color commentator for girls basketball games on MOJO 102.9 and won the Jack Cramer Ideals of Athletic Competition in 2016.
The Silver Anniversary team honorees will be recognized along with this year’s Hall of Fame class at the 2019 Women’s Basketball Awards Banquet April 27 at Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis.
“I think it will be really exciting,” White said. “I feel like I’m really blessed to be a part of all this. Basketball has been a huge part of my life, and at the same time, shaped my life and taught me life lessons.”
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Name: Allison (Lee) White
High school: Columbus East
College: Eastern Illinois
Occupation: Sixth-grade math teacher at Southside Elementary
Family: Husband Brett, daughters Madison and Caitlin
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