Bulla Basketball Memories: Jack White

Thanks to Bulla Family Dairy we are taking a look back at some of our players’ and coaches’ early days of basketball.

Jack White is back in Melbourne after a stint overseas playing college basketball and is rapt to finally be able to reconnect with where it all began - Melbourne’s Gippsland region.

White, 23, grew up playing basketball in Traralgon, but it was not the only sport he played as a junior.

He said it was the step up to representative basketball which saw him pursue the sport more seriously as he grew older.

“My old man was pretty heavily involved from an officiating standpoint,” he said.

“My mum plays a little bit, but in general sport was a big part of mine and my sisters’ childhoods, growing up and playing different sports.

“I played footy, tennis, cricket and basketball and when I got to the age of 12, I started playing more representative basketball for Traralgon and started to take it a bit more seriously.

“I really decided then that basketball was what I wanted to pursue and take it further.”

Traralgon is widely known as an Australian Football town but has a rich basketball history with both Fran Hammond and Jenna O’Hea hailing from the area.

White said it was a fantastic place to play his junior basketball, before he started commuting to Melbourne more frequently to play in representative teams.

“For a country town it was pretty good,” he said.

“As I got into my teenage years and started to progress further and grow a bit taller, I started travelling to Melbourne to play in more competitions.

“When I was 14, I started to play more senior basketball which was probably one of the best things for me being surrounded by more mature players.

“I was put in a setting where I was being challenged differently to when I was playing junior basketball.”

But White said it was the experience at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which was the biggest driver of his development.

The AIS in the nation’s capital provided him with a challenging environment, allowing him to progress before eventually heading overseas and then landing back at Melbourne United earlier this year.

“It was the biggest jump I had ever had in my career,” he said.

“Similar to playing against grown men, being in that challenging environment and getting that elite landscape and practice with coaches, being there really helped me to advance my game.

“We played in the SEABL competition which was a step above where I was previously playing. I think it was the biggest thing for me, having the elite facilities allowed me to take my game to the next level.”

White has now settled back into his home region and with the high anticipation of NBL21 being just less than two months away he has been labelled as one to watch in the upcoming season.

Make sure you’re signed up as a 2021 Member to witness him play on the Melbourne courts for the first time in 2021.