Daleville’s White surpasses 4,000 career yards

While the Daleville Warhawks were unable to secure a win last Friday, senior running back Jalen White still managed to make history as he surpassed the 4,000-yard rushing mark for his career.

While it is unclear – due to incomplete records – if White is the all-time leading rusher at Daleville, the Alabama High School Athletic Associate (AHSAA) has no Daleville runners listed on its website of running backs that have surpassed the 4,000-yard mark.

One of Daleville’s most recent prolific running backs, Brandon Burks, finished his Warhawk career with 3,470 yards and 53 touchdowns.

Only 52 total players in the history of the AHSAA had surpassed 4,000 rushing yards in a career, and now White has become the 53rd player to do it.

After rushing for 306 yards against Long on Sept. 13, White surpassed the 4,000-yard mark and now has 1,337 yards and 21 touchdowns in just five games. According to MaxPreps.com, White is currently the No. 2-ranked rusher in the entire country with only Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Jackson ahead of him.

For his career, he has rushed for an eye-popping 4,437 yards and 57 touchdowns. As a smile crept over his face, White said he had no idea that he had reached that milestone when he was informed.

White said that while he didn’t expect to be piling up the yardage so quickly his senior season, he also isn’t that surprised.

“No way I expected it to go like this really,” White said. “I looked at it like if I could do it once then I could keep doing it. Once I found out that I rushed for 300 yards against Leroy, I knew I could keep doing it.”

While his stats have been almost unbelievable, it’s what White does off the field that means the most, according to his coach.

“Jalen has meant a lot to this program,” Daleville coach Desmond Lett said. “He plays both sides of the ball, he works hard in the weight room, he works hard at practice, he works hard after practice and he works hard in the classroom.

“You never have to make sure that Jalen is giving 100 percent. He just does it.”

Lett said that the quiet White is more of a leader by example for the Warhawks.

“We have a lot of kids that follow his example,” Lett emphasized. “He has been so big for our program and he opens up things for other kids because of so many eyes being on him.”

White has been a staple of the Warhawk football program since his freshman season and he said that when he first got to Daleville the Warhawk tradition was something that grabbed his attention.

“When I got here I would see all the plaques and the banners of state championships, and I felt like that would be something great to be a part of,” White said. “I would hear stories about how Daleville was the team no one wanted to play and I wanted to bring that back here and make teams fear playing us when they see us on the schedule.”

During his freshman season in 2016, White played a backup role to all-state running back Kainan Pouncy but ended the season with 238 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries. White said playing behind talented backs like Pouncy and others really improved his game.

“I learned a lot from those guys,” White said. “(Kainan) was a bruising back that would run guys over and when he got into the open field it was really hard to take him down. I feel like when I’m in the open field I’m the same way.

“Ryan Warren was really quick and he really helped me with my vision because of how well he could see the field. When was in eighth grade – as a team manger – I would watch Alex McNeal and I really learned a lot from his game, too.”

Pouncy said that even as a 15-year-old freshman, White’s work ethic was already evident.

“Jalen is one of the hardest workers I’ve played with,” Pouncy said. “He always puts in the extra work and if he didn’t know something he always asked. That kid has a really bright future. He’s helping put Daleville on the map.”

Pouncy said that he could tell White would be a special player early on in his career.

“He was a born athlete and he showed that his freshman year by competing with us older guys,” Pouncy emphasized. “If someone thinks they are going to outwork Jalen they don’t know him at all.”

As a sophomore, White moved into a starting role on both offense and defense and finished the season with 1,147 yards and 15 touchdowns.

“His ninth grade year (Jalen) was more of a secondary back for us and we really didn’t want to run him inside because he was a tall, skinny kid,” Lett said. “His (sophomore) year he got a lot of touches but was still more of an outside runner for us.”

As a junior, White rushed for 1,745 yards and 18 touchdowns, while tallying 66 tackles, three tackles-for-loss and three sacks on defense. White exploded in the playoffs with more than 500 yards rushing in two games.

Lett said that as a junior, White seemed to still prefer to run around defenders but that has changed in 2019.

“Last year he ran inside more but still was more of an outside runner,” Lett continued. “This year, opposed to trying to avoid contact and try to run around guys, he thrives off of it.

“He seeks out contact. Late in games he runs just as hard he did on the first drive. That progression from his freshman year to now has been like night and day. He wasn’t looking for contact before but now he’s added more aspects to his game than just running around you. He’ll run through you, too.”

White has earned scholarship offers from a number of FCS schools as well as Sun Belt teams like Coastal Carolina and South Alabama, but despite all of his success Power 5 schools - nor even Troy – have reached out to the productive running back. That fact has helped fuel White’s drive in 2019.

“I feel like I know I work hard and I play hard and I know that I do better than some of the athletes that I see getting that attention,” White bluntly said. “Sometimes it does get to me but I have to tell myself to be patient and do what I’m doing and it will come. I definitely use that, though.”

The AHSAA record for career rushing yards is 9,839 by Alexandria’s Mac Campbell from 1993-1997. While that record may be unattainable for White, the season rushing record is feasible.

In 2014, Dale County’s Jemarius Henderson rushed for 3,483 yards to set the record, and he did so in 15 games. Currently, White is on pace to rush for 2,857 yards in Daleville’s 10 regular season games, but depending on if the Warhawks make the playoffs – and how far they go – the record could come within the senior’s reach.