Why Penn State 4-star commit Lonnie White Jr. isn’t done making decisions about his future
Dave Gueriara can’t pick just one. The Malvern Prep head football coach takes some time to think.
“Oh my god,” Gueriara says. “There’s many. Just one in particular?”
He brings up a valid point. How can someone narrow down the countless highlight reel plays, accomplishments and achievements of senior wide receiver Lonnie White Jr. to just one favorite memory?
Finally, Gueriara settles on a favorite.
“He had a touchdown against Archbishop Wood this year,” Gueriara says. “It was thrown to his outside shoulder and then he had to adjust late, as he went up in the air, then was going out of bounds and was able to tap his foot in. It was ridiculous.”
But then he adds another.
There was that time White made up for a completely botched play and managed to score anyway. And one more — when he stiff-armed an opponent as a junior that threw an opponent about 6 yards, but Gueriara relents.
“I don’t know, man,” he says with a laugh. “There’s like 10 of them. There’s a lot. If you looked at his junior year highlights, all of the runs he had, every run was like a top-10 ESPN highlight-worthy.”
While it’s difficult for his high school football coach to narrow down an innocuous decision about White’s greatness, that pales in comparison to the decision the high school senior had to make, and the one he’ll have to make soon.
White chose his college destination — Penn State — to play football and baseball, but he may have to choose between the two sports he loves before he even graduates high school.
The Malvern Prep star plays both sports, along with basketball, and excels at each of them. In fact, he wasn’t always committed to Penn State, and he wasn’t always committed to a football program. In the fall of his sophomore year of high school, he announced his commitment to Clemson to play baseball.
That decision became one worth reconsidering once White realized his football potential.
“When I was younger, I wanted to play baseball in college, just baseball,” he said. “But then as I got older, in my junior year, I realized I wanted to play football, too.”
That interest turned into a commitment to Penn State football — and baseball — in April.
“I thought it just felt right,” White said. “When the football offers came in, I realized I didn’t want to just play baseball in college. And I kinda want to stay closer to home, so if I’m playing both my family could come see me. And I picked Penn State because, I mean, we’re a Penn State family, for one. But it also felt right. The coaches were awesome and my family loved them. It was just the right decision for me.”
Not long after he joined the 2021 recruiting class, White and Christian Veilleux — the lone quarterback in the class and first quarterback to commit to Penn State offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca — began building their relationship. Those two will potentially build a connection on the field as classmates and will need to work on their synergy off the field, as well.
A good relationship outside of football can only mean good things when they finally play together, whenever that may be.
“There’s no point in not growing that relationship when you’ll be playing together, and going to school together, taking classes together, for four years,” Veilleux said. “I think it’s super important. For him to be a receiver and me to be a quarterback, it’s even more important for us to be on the same page and have good chemistry and have a good relationship.”
The importance of their relationship grows when you consider what both want to accomplish when they’re Nittany Lions. Neither has individual success on their mind and both want to work together to build greatness under Ciarrocca and Penn State head coach James Franklin.
White doesn’t take the time to outline what he wants to achieve as an individual. He’d rather talk about the team. When pressed, he makes it clear — he just wants to win.
His desire to achieve team success matches up with White’s personality. He knows he has athletic gifts — his dad played basketball and was an All-American at East Stroudsburg, and his mom played softball and basketball at the same school before playing professional softball. But that’s not why he’s entering the decision-making process he’s heading toward.
White is there because he’s put his gifts to work and done what he has to so he can maximize the upside he was born with.
“Even coming from an athletic family, you still have to put the work in,” he said. “I think that’s going to be a huge thing, even going into college. It’s going to be even harder going into college. You’ve still got to do it and it’s only going to make you better.”
Now his talent has White at a crossroads. He must choose his path into his future. He’ll sign with Penn State Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to make his way to campus this summer.
The 2021 MLB Draft will take place from July 11-13, and White has a legitimate chance to hear his name called — and potentially very early. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him as the No. 43 prospect in his way-too-early rankings for the draft class, while MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo released his top 100 on Monday and ranked White as the No. 37 prospect in the class.
Still, the high school senior isn’t exactly rushing to make a decision on what he’ll do — and he will need a good reason to leave the opportunity that awaits at Penn State.
“I know it’s gonna take me a lot to get me out of Penn State,” he said. “I’m still thinking about the draft, I’m still thinking about college, but when the time comes that’s when I’ll make my decision. I’m just not sure, just now.”
The Nittany Lions have plenty of help in their corner.
Veilleux and his classmates make sure White knows he’s wanted in college. They pitch him on playing football and know he loves the game. But Veilleux knows White needs to do what’s best for him and the wide receiver has received that message.
“Of course they want me to come there,” White said. “But they want me to make the best decision for me.”
While White is adamant that it will take a lot of convincing to get him to sway from his college commitment, it would be difficult to blame him if he chose professional baseball. The money players can make in the draft is life-changing, and White loves the sport.
But if he does choose to go to college, White has a chance to make a long-term impact at wide receiver — the kind of impact that leaves a coach in silence as they contemplate the best highlight in a career filled with them.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
