Expectations much too high for Decensae White?

All while apparently hiding a terrible secret.

My jaw dropped when I received a text from my editor-in-chief, indicating White, along with a handful of others, had been arrested for murder in connection with the death of an Atlanta-based rapper last summer.

How the mighty have fallen. I wonder if this is not a cautionary tale for those elite high school athletes who despite enormous expectations, may not actually want to be in the spotlight of their chosen sport. Perhaps they really want to do something else with their lives.

When I talked to White in November, he finally seemed to be at peace with his career — one that started with legendary coach Bobby Knight at Texas Tech — and legitimately happy to be playing again. The day the story appeared in the Daily Journal, I received an email from a friend, indicating that in White’s time between dropping out of Santa Clara University and enrolling at SFSU, White had moved to Atlanta to start a rap career — which was news to me. Having followed White throughout his high school career, I had never heard anyone talk about or rave about White’s rapping skills. It seems to me if he had that much rap game, I would have heard about it.

The email went on to say that he wasn’t getting much respect, which shouldn’t be that surprising. He had done everything the right way in the world of sports, not so much in the rap world. Starring for a high-profile Catholic high school basketball team is not the way to build a rep in the rap game.

Now, he is accused of conspiring with a crew, including a reputed Russian mob figure, to murder rapper Lil Phat. Was this a way for White to make his bones in the Atlanta rap scene? Was this a way for him to distance himself from his Catholic private-school education and give him the same respect in the rap game as he had on the basketball court?

Maybe those questions will be answered during his up-coming trial. I happen to believe both are true.

To me, White never seemed really happy playing basketball. He was always a low-key, understated, even-keeled kind of guy in my dealings with him. I always had the feeling he played basketball because he was good at it, not necessarily because he loved it. Maybe that explains why he bounced around so much during his college career. Perhaps he was looking for the school that would ignite his passion for the sport, to give him a reason to continue playing the game.

I can’t help but think maybe the singular focus kids — and their parents — have nowadays toward sports, with their eye always on the scholarship prize, might be harming kids in the long run. Let’s face it, it’s not healthy to put all your eggs into one basket. But with year-round club teams, the demise of the multi-sport high school athlete and the pressure to have college paid for, young athletes may be getting pushed in a direction they may not want to go.

What if they want to be a rapper? A doctor? Anything but an athlete? And this is not just for high school athletes. It is for any high school student who has tons of pressure on them to be something everyone else expects. The pressure to excel in the classroom, in advance placement classes, to pull a 4.0-plus grade point average, to get into the best universities. Any kind of single-mindedness toward something — athletics or otherwise — is not the most healthy way to go about things. We’re talking about high school kids. How many know what they want to do for the rest of their lives as a 16, 17, 18-year-old? I know I certainly didn’t. But then I didn’t have immense pressure put on me by anybody and my exploits did not appear in the newspaper every other day.

White may have ruined the rest of his life. He’ll get his day in court and a most likely a jury will decide if he is responsible for one of the most heinous acts one man can perpetrate on another. For those of you high schoolers following this story, let it be a warning: don’t let sports, or a heavy-academic load, define you. There’s a lot more to life than scoring the winning basket or winning titles or getting straight As. Start exploring your interests now. Find things you are passionate about. Experience life for all that it can give you. If you truly find sports is your calling, by all means, pursue it. But start finding your passion now because it’s difficult to change course once you go down a certain road. White may have chosen a path that leads nowhere but a dead end.