Mission accomplished

Brittany white scored 26 points
Always around the ball, Brittany White (14) stayed a step ahead of Sacred Heart
and netted 26 points to carry New Mission to the Division 4 state championship.
(JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF)

Teen's tough times end with a title

By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Columnist | March 12, 2007

It takes a tremendous amount of energy to pretend you don't care.

New Mission guard Brittany White used to exhaust herself convincing anyone who tried to help her that they were wasting their time.

"I just wanted people to leave me alone," she said.

Cory McCarthy couldn't do that. He was the basketball coach and the dean of students at New Mission, which has an enrollment of just 260 students, and he was trying to restore some pride in a community that had been trampled by too much violence, too much heartache, and too many kids languishing in the streets.

White had talent, smarts, and spunk. But she also had a temper, one that tangled her up in so many incidents at Cathedral High School (including fistfights with a girl and a boy), the administration had no choice but to throw her out after her freshman year.

"Oh, I was bad," she confessed. "Real bad. They told them at New Mission, 'You don't want that girl. She's trouble.' "

"They did say that," McCarthy confirmed, "but there was something about her. From the moment I met her, I thought, 'This girl is going to save our school.' "

Yesterday afternoon on the Garden parquet, White saved New Mission's season with a game-high 26 points, including the final 6 for her team, which clinched the Division 4 state championship with a thrilling 65-59 win over Sacred Heart.

It was a pulsating finish for the tiny city school that dressed just six players, including one, Ronee Budd, who was playing in her first game since hernia surgery. Some, such as White, were troubled students expelled from other schools. The Lady Titans have only a half-court gym, and taped their numbers on their jerseys until two seasons ago, when McCarthy finally secured uniforms. Yesterday their lineup boasted just one player -- White -- taller than 5 feet 6 inches.

Even so, New Mission used its up-tempo style to build an 11-point lead (57-46) with 3:58 to play, only to watch a resilient, skilled Sacred Heart team come roaring back behind the sweet shooting of Molly Cahill. Cahill's 3-pointer with 1:11 to play capped a 13-2 run for the Saints and knotted the score at 59.

On the next possession, White set up in the post and asked for -- no, demanded -- the ball. The senior missed a turnaround, but knocked in her own rebound.

Cahill, who is only a sophomore, hustled down and nearly drained another trey (it went halfway down, then out). White -- who else? -- hauled in the miss, then hit both ends of a one-and-one on the ensuing foul. She converted two more free throws with 17 seconds to play to seal it.

As she celebrated with teammates at center court, she grabbed her coach and hugged him fiercely. Without his guidance, she said, she would never have finished high school, never mind been in a position to prepare for college.

"After Cathedral, I didn't even want to go to school anymore," she said. "I was ready to drop out."

Her parents, both police officers, said that was not an option. They worked with Cathedral officials to find a school that would take her. McCarthy said he would, but White would have to spend the summer with him cleaning classrooms at New Mission.

"He wanted me there at 7 a.m. every morning," White said. "I didn't want to do it. He'd call, and I wouldn't answer the phone. So he'd come to my house and wake me up.

"The only good part was after we cleaned the classrooms, he'd take me downstairs to play ball. He helped me work on my left hand."

Her first year at New Mission was hardly smooth. She sassed her teachers, clashed with students. She demonstrated considerable skills on the basketball court, but tested her coach to his limits.

"I just ran off at the mouth," she said. "I didn't care what anybody thought. I'd be about to be suspended and then he'd come in there and talk them into giving me detention. I'd sit there like I didn't care, but I kept thinking, 'Why is this guy doing this?' "

McCarthy would not leave her alone. After basketball season, he told her she was playing softball. She didn't like the sport, disrupted the practices. They argued, and McCarthy kicked White off the team.

They didn't speak for two months. Each day White would pass McCarthy in the hallway and stare right through him, as if he weren't there.

"I kept thinking, 'How long can I go without talking to this kid?' " McCarthy said. "It was killing me. And I knew it was killing her. Every time she walked by me, she was glassy-eyed."

One afternoon, McCarthy called White into his office. She was expecting the worst. As usual, her coach surprised her.

"He told me, 'It hurts me when you don't talk to me, because you are like a daughter to me,' " White said.

She tried to look right through him, but she couldn't see much through her tears. For the next 45 minutes, she sat in his office and wept.

"I couldn't hide it anymore," she said. "I guess he knew I actually had feelings."

After a strong sophomore season, numerous college scouts expressed interest in White. But New Mission played .500 ball last season and White's numbers were down. What McCarthy didn't know was that she toiled through much of the season with a stress fracture in her foot.

"After her sophomore season, the college coaches were running her down," McCarthy said. "But after last year, they all decided, 'OK, just another city kid.' I've sent e-mails to every Division 2 school in the nation. But they don't know our school. We don't have a tradition yet. So they say, 'Who is this kid?' "

She is a kid who has just added a state championship to her résumé, a kid who has made her share of mistakes -- as most of her teammates have -- and is finally willing to acknowledge them.

The high school career of Brittany White has been a work in progress. She is proud of her 3.3 grade-point average this year, and happier still that she has emerged as a leader of a group of young women who were given a second chance to prove they belong.

"This isn't about winning for some school," McCarthy explained. "It's about bringing back the heart of an entire neighborhood."

And that, Brittany White agrees, is worth caring about.
Jackie MacMullan is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is macmullan@globe.com.