Old name, new tradition

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The black Chevy Avalanche pulled into the parking lot at the corner of 83rd Street and Eighth Avenue South just after 3 o’clock one July afternoon. Riley White, the first head football coach in Banks Academy history, sat in the driver’s seat accompanied by three of his players.

White had picked each of them up on the way to the school so that they could attend practice later that day. After it ended, he planned to drive them home. His assistant coaches would do the same for many of the other 21 boys on Banks Academy’s inaugural football team, which played its first game Aug. 23.

White said he doesn’t view the players’ lack of transportation as a challenge. Rather, he recognizes it as his new reality. It’s one that contains more nuances than it did last year, when White was an assistant football and head track coach at Oak Mountain High School, a well-established and well-resourced public institution that enrolls more than 1,500 students.

But White’s new reality is not one that he would trade. He cherishes Banks Academy, a private Christian high school housed in a small church in East Lake, and the 60 or so students who walk its halls.

“It’s a unique, legitimately once in a lifetime opportunity to get to start a program at the school that my family has so much history with,” said White, sitting in an office half consumed by rows of new football helmets and cleats. “I’m thankful for it and really excited to be here.”

Nearly 60 years ago, White’s grandfather, George “Shorty” White, became the head coach at Banks High School. He led the Jets from 1961-74 and won three state championships during his tenure, then joined Bear Bryant’s staff at the University of Alabama.

Riley White’s father, Darryl White, grew up in the East Lake neighborhood that Banks served until Shorty White took the job in Tuscaloosa. He ended up playing for his father at Alabama, and together they were a part of the Crimson Tide’s national championship team in 1979.

Nearly six years ago, Darryl White awoke in the middle of the night with an unshakable idea in his mind. He wanted to start a Christian high school in the neighborhood where he spent his formative years and resurrect the Banks name. The original Banks High closed in 1989 after 32 years of existence.

“I believe the Lord put it in my heart to do it,” he said.

Darryl White helped launch Banks Academy, a nonprofit school for grades nine to 12 that is accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International, in 2015 with a group that included two Banks alumni. He now juggles the dual roles of president and athletic director. He said that Banks Academy provides an alternative for area students who desire a faith-based education.

Most East Lake students attend either Huffman or Woodlawn high schools, which are both on the state’s failing schools list, and are eligible to receive tax-credit scholarships that can be applied toward tuition at a private school like Banks.

“If families want another option instead of the public school and would like a Christian environment, a Christian school, then we are a real good choice for that,” Darryl White said.

While reviving the Banks name and reviving Banks football always went hand in hand in his mind, Darryl White never intended to hire his son as the head coach. He figured that Riley White was happy at Oak Mountain, which competes in the state’s highest athletic classification, and wouldn’t consider leaving that behind for a startup program that lacks a locker room, weight room and most other amenities.

But Darryl White didn’t peg his son accurately.

When Banks launched its coaching search last year, Riley White expressed interest in the position for reasons even he couldn’t articulate. In his initial interview with school board members and the principal, Banks High alumnus Dr. Kathy King, he told them he didn’t know why he was interested. The move didn’t make much practical sense, but it captivated him nonetheless. 

“As my wife [Marianne] and I evaluated the situation, as we went through the interview process, got offered the job, we really prayed about it and got to a point where we had this overwhelming peace about accepting the job regardless of how it looked from a career standpoint,” Riley White said. “I really didn’t care.”

Darryl White recused himself from the selection process after his son revealed his intention to apply. Once Riley White did, it didn’t take long for him to emerge as the leading candidate. He played high school football at Briarwood Christian, ran track at Liberty University and possessed six years of high school football coaching experience.

Banks Academy announced him as its choice in late January.

“For Riley to give up being in a public school, where everything is basically at his fingertips and he has pay and insurance and all kinds of other benefits, and to be willing to give all that up so that he could grow a football program, said all it needed to say to me,” King said.

Riley White’s selection, along with the news of football’s return to East Lake, has been met with enthusiasm. A video posted to the Banks Academy Facebook page highlighting the announcement had totaled more than 38,000 views as of Aug. 20.

Jeff Rutledge, who quarterbacked Banks High to a pair of state titles and Alabama to the 1978 national championship, praised the program’s genesis.

“I think it’s great for that area of Birmingham, and I really appreciate what Darryl’s doing,” Rutledge said.

The Banks Academy team conditioned throughout the summer before starting practice July 22. Since there is not a football field near campus, coaches drive Banks players and all equipment — tackling dummies, cones, etc. —  about five minutes down the road to Cowboy Field at East Lake Park. Some kids ride in their coaches’ vehicles, but many fit in a Columbia blue van that is stamped with the school’s logo, a jet, and one of its slogans: Old name with a new tradition.

The foundation of that tradition has started to form.

In pre-practice meetings, Riley White has preached the importance of accountability, discipline and perseverance as often as he’s imparted instructions about running and blocking. Only a couple of athletes on his roster have played varsity football, so he knows that attention to detail will be particularly vital for his undeveloped squad.

Players include Lamar Henley, a senior wide receiver who used to attend Clay-Chalkville; De’Corius Almacen, a senior running back who moved to the area from Opelika; and Keyon Chandler, a sophomore lineman who previously attended Woodlawn.

All three struggled to explain how meaningful it is for them to be a part of the inaugural Banks Academy team. But they agreed that they want to represent the name well.

“We’ve got to take it to another level,” Henley said.

Banks Academy will navigate a nine-game schedule this fall against other teams in the Christian Football Association, with home contests held at East Lake Park. Darryl White said he expected strong turnout for the team’s first home game thanks to the Banks High alumni who have expressed their support both vocally and financially. According to him, most startup costs have been offset by donations.

“We’ve got all these alumni, as soon as they found out we were having football, they were raising thousands of dollars for uniforms,” Darryl White said.

This season, Banks Academy will play eight-man football in the CFA, but that will likely only last for one year. The Whites said they plan to leap to the Alabama Independent School Association, which features 11-on-11, next fall.

Eventually, Riley White said he would like to see Banks Academy become what Banks High used to be: the gold standard for high school football in the city of Birmingham.

He believes it’s an attainable goal, though one that won’t take top priority.

“Learning football and playing good football and winning, all those things are really lower on my totem pole than reaching these kids and building relationships with them and preparing them for life and teaching them how to become godly young men,” he said. “But I think we can still build a great on-the-field program while doing that.”

As Banks Academy progressed through its second official practice in late July, Riley White dropped to one knee while teaching his quarterbacks how to hand the ball off properly. His father stood gazing in the distance.

As he watched red helmets crisscross the field, Darryl White thought about how it had been 30 years since a team named Banks played football in Birmingham. He  also thought about how his father, Shorty, had been 30 when he took over as head coach at Banks High and how his son, Riley, also was 30 when he became the head coach at Banks Academy.

The moment, soaked in sunshine and an unseasonably cool breeze, seemed frozen in time.

Football had returned to a legendary community.

“The whole point is to honor the Lord and bring glory to Him,” Darryl White said. “He’s the one who put this idea in my heart.”