Jahiem White's Road to WVU: A Move That Led Me to My Godmother

What’s good Mountaineers? 

I wasn’t going to post again until mid-July but with gaining four new commits this past weekend I thought I would put something together! Momentum is strong and we are building something special.

So, I’m going to start this post with my sixth grade year. You’ll see why, in the end. 

I was raised by a single mom. My mother is the strongest woman I know. She comes from a long line of strong, hard-working women. Our family motto is “Grind For Better” or GFB. That’s my Twitter banner and also the tattoo on my left arm. As kids, we always came first. So, in sixth grade, we left Florida for Pennsylvania because my mom had family in York. I wasn’t happy about it. I enrolled at Phineas Davis Elementary School. I was placed in my homeroom and met my teacher. My teacher loved sports. She came from a family that loved football and Penn State. I spent the first few weeks in her room watching NFL clips on ESPN featuring running backs. One day, she asked me if I had ever heard of Barkley (he was still playing for PSU). I said no. She sat down and plugged his name into Google and told me to check him out. I did. She asked me what I thought about him after school that day. I told her he wasn’t that great. She laughed, and rolled her eyes. Eventually, I admitted that he was great, and that she was right. His jersey now hangs above my bed in my room.

We moved back to Florida my seventh grade year. Again, in the spring of that year I moved back to PA and ended back up at Davis. I went to see my sixth grade teacher my first day back. I sat in her room and watched clips of Barkley doing his thing. My teacher, Amanda, knows that I have a lot of energy. I need to be busy. So, she reached out to the high school football coach, Coach Stoner, and asked him if I could join spring football workouts. He said yes and I started working out with the team. I also played AAU basketball with the PA Rens for a season.

I stayed in PA living with my mom and brothers. When my mom was working and wasn’t able to take me somewhere, I would call Amanda. My teacher became my godmother. Her family became my family. Because she teaches in the district I play for, she is on me about my grades and Coach Stoner doesn’t play either. So, when people say “student-athlete”, I know that there is no football without grades.

My first varsity game was against McCaskey, a team from Lancaster. I started at slot. I think I had 3 TD’s that game. I love one-handed catches. I’m good at those. Coach saw something special that night. I had a great freshman year at slot and got some time at RB. My sophomore year is when I had my breakout games. Coach called my godmom and told her that I was “special”, and to set up a Twitter account. So, I set up my account, and started making connections. I have been blessed with teammates that work hard to protect me on the line, and to make those stops on defense. It helps to have a QB that has his own D-I offers and a coaching staff that is dedicated to making you a “student-athlete”. Sixth grade was the year that changed everything. A move I hated, ended up being a blessing.

I’m ending with a quick story. As I told you my god-family loves PSU. They are alumni. We went to Beaver Stadium for a game my freshman year, I think. I remember walking into Beaver Stadium and watching Dotson warm up. I also remember Amanda pointing to the recruits and saying you will be there one day. Fast forward to last Fall and we stood together on the sideline at PSU, Maryland, Temple, etc. At the WVU game I knew I wanted to commit. I looked at her and said “I’m home”. She cried. She always cries when I do something good. It’s a running joke that when I score you can look up and see her cry. So, please make sure that we have Kleenex in the stadium at WVU, because I plan to make her cry, a lot…

** Side note – Even though my god-parents are PSU alumni, they have removed the football flag from the garage. They are hunting a new WVU flag to hang in it’s place. #HAILWVU #TAKEMEHOME23