Tony Ellington Sr, Parent

Hello my name is Tony Ellington Sr. and my sons name is Tony Ellington JR., my son has been playing basketball since he was 5 years old. He has been to many camps and has done a lot of individual training over the last 10 years. Everything we have done the point of emphases has involved a basketball in some shape or form. We have done some work without the ball from band work to plyometric but when we were blessed enough to meet and work with Coach Graig White we quickly realized how little we knew and how little we had really done in the weight of strength training.

The work we were doing before (about 10% of the total workouts) we were doing because we were told it would help our game. Coach White took it to another level and would explain every aspect of what we were doing from what muscle it would impact to why we need to improve the technique in which we execute the exercises. He always took timeout to explain to my son and I what was going on with his body no matter how stupid the question may have been.

When my son first started going to Coach White in May of 2011 (his 8th grade year) he weighed 98 pounds and had trouble getting knocked off his line by bigger, stronger and more experienced players. He has always been quick but because of his lack of size and strength he spent more time going East-West instead of North-South, going around players and not through the space he created with his speed and dribble, which gave defenders time to recover.

Entering high school we knew this would be an opportunity, he has always been a good player but high school ball is a much fast and more physical game than you will find an the middle school, travel ball and AAU arenas. And to make matters worse he attends Rancocas Valley High School which has over 2000 students and its basketball programs is always one of the top in state.

Since May he has worked with Coach White 2 to 3 times a week for 45min to an hour each workout. He has gained 25 pounds of muscle and is more explosive than he has ever been. During team camp in July he did enough to catch the coach’s eye to be selected to participate in many varsity events that took place over the summer and fall. With quality results in the events he was asked to tryout for the JV/Varsity team. Over 56 players tried out, they only kept 18 players and he is one of them (on JV). The first two scrimmages he did not start but was an impact player in both games so much so he started in the 3rd scrimmages and did a great job.

We contribute a tremendous amount of credit to the work Coach White put in with him over the months. We went from worrying about making the frosh team to starting JV because of the professional approach and superior knowledge that Coach White has displayed. We are looking forward to working out with him over the years. If the first 6 month is any indication this should be an awesome ride. Thank you coach White for all you do.

Tony Ellington Sr.