WEST LAFAYETTE — Adversity is nothing new to Alec White.
As a high school standout at New Palestine throughout his career, nothing came easy without a little heartache.
Before he stood atop the podium as an IHSAA state champion at 126 pounds his senior year in 2017, he wrestled through setbacks and letdowns.
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As a freshman, he reached his first of four state finals in downtown Indianapolis inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but he wasn’t automatically crowned a champion immediately.
His goal required patience, fortitude and a mindset overhaul.
After placing fourth at 106 his first year, he returned but didn’t place, not the next year, but instead White did as a junior and finished sixth in the state at 113.
White, now a redshirt sophomore at Purdue University, knew he had to change his approach both strategically and from within to breakthrough.
The answer was letting go of his inner voice, the whispering doubt that would sometimes overtake him and hinder him from becoming the best he could be.
The philosophical switch taught him how to be the winner he desired to become and his journey culminated with a pin in 3 minutes, 32 seconds under the state championship match spotlight.
The fall, the 90th of his career in 159 victories compared to only 18 losses, put the, then fifth-ranked wrestler in the state, in the Dragons’ history books and on the Wall of Champions.
With records of 36-9 as a freshman, 40-5 as a sophomore, 44-3 as a junior and 39-1 as a senior, White figured out no matter how difficult the task, only he could overcome the hurdles with the right outlook.
As he faces yet another obstacle beyond his control this season, the 141-pounder embraces the same perspective.
Winning is more than victories, it’s how you deal with the uphill climb.
On Feb. 21, White will have corrective surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip, which has officially ended his 2019-20 campaign where he went 6-6 after producing a 7-7 record his redshirt freshman season in West Lafayette.
Throwing in the towel would be understandable for some, but not for White.
“He’s a tough kid. He’s a competitor and works hard. Not just in the wrestling room but off the mat as well,” said New Palestine head coach Alex Johns, who instructed White during his state championship season. “For the rehab he has upcoming, I’m confident he’s going to bounce back and perform well next year and the years to come.”
The injury cropped up last summer prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, but White refused to let it get the best of him. After sitting out his first year as a redshirt, he won his first collegiate match against Columbia’s JP Ascolese by decision 8-4 on Nov. 4, 2018.
The learning curve was steep, but White never backs down, former club coach and close family friend Chad Red of Red Cobra Wrestling Academy emphasized on his former student’s character.
“It’s kind of a testament of who his is, and the way he was brought up and raised by his parents (Kevin and Amy). It would be tough in any Division I program to play any sport, and he’s been the guy. He’s kept a real good head the entire time,” Red said. “He’s always been that way.”
It showed as he placed fourth at 141 in the Freshman/Sophomore Division of the Michigan State Open in November 2017 and fourth again at the Jim Koch Wisconsin Open the next month.
Named Academic All-Big Ten in 2018-19, White proved a student of the sport and of the lifestyle. As with anything, however, it was a result of adaptation.
“It’s a grind, and he’s a great student. He’s a finance major, close to straight As, 4.0 type of kid, and he was in high school. He’s D-I, Big Ten, wrestling also on top of the grades, so he’s going to see success whichever way he goes,” Johns said. “I’m excited to see what the next couple of years are like for him.”
This year, White had hoped to show exactly what he could do, but the injuries slowed him down. As his hip continued to grow worse, a concussion in December of this past year brought everything to halt.
“It was pretty tough coming back from that concussion, and the hip just kept getting worse,” White said. “I just decided with the doctors and everyone that getting that fixed would be the best thing, so I’ll be ready hopefully by next preseason to really hit it hard and get ready for next season.
“I thought the hip was a simple tweak, but it stuck around. It settled down for a little bit, but then at the beginning of the season I re-aggravated and it kept going and going. I wrestled through it for a while, but it never got better.”
The surgery set to take place at Methodist Sports Medicine in Carmel will be followed by a four to six month recovery and physical therapy regime that he’s preparing to conquer one step at at time.
“I’m already looking at the plan and how to get back to 100 percent healthy and just getting back to practicing every day with the guys. I know I’m ready and I have a great training staff that’s going to help out and coaches to push me through it,” White said.
When any reservation creeps in, White recalls his first day at Purdue and how he had two choices. There’s always two.
“I remember getting in there right after graduation, maybe 10 days later and immediately started getting my tail kicked in the room. At that point, you can either wither away or just go at it, learn to be better, learn to start getting takedowns in the room, winning some drills,” White said. “Then eventually, things start rolling.
“During a red-shirt year, you don’t get to compete as much as what you usually want, so just sitting back, practicing all the time and getting better. You know you’re getting better, so you just have to keep grinding.”
That approach helped him achieve his dreams before and left on imprint on not only his younger brother, Christian, who is a state-ranked junior at New Palestine, but all of the Dragons yet to seize their own opportunities.
“I try to make a little impact on my brother, but not only him but the rest of the team,” White said. “There’s a special spot in my heart, obviously for him, and if I can help him, then I will in as many ways as a I can. I want him to everything I did and more.
“I was pretty uptight and let everything get to me the first few years in high school, and then I just learned to start having more fun. When I came here, I thought, this is pretty intense. But once I started having fun again, things started developing for me and I started getting a lot better.”
At New Palestine, never giving up led to his spot next to former state champions Kyle Ulrey and C.J. Red, in the Dragons wrestling room where the current wrestlers face the champions daily as a reminder of what can be when you work hard enough.
“It’s awesome knowing I made an impact on that program is pretty special to me. I left a good legacy that will live on forever in there,” White said. “That was the biggest thing for me, making sure I left an impact on the program.”
