Whitley embraces walk-on role

When people, spectators and analysts look at collegiate athletics regardless of the level, more times than not they tend to pay attention to the scholarship athletes and overlook those who walk-on to the teams.

The East Carolina University men’s basketball team has a walk-on player that has worked hard and made an impact off the bench despite not getting as much playing time as others on the team, and that is junior guard John Whitley. Whitley, a native of Washington, North Carolina, which is only 22 miles from Greenville, gets to play the sport he loves and be close to family.

“I started when I was like eight and I just fell in love with the game,” Whitley said. “I looked up to Kobe Bryant, and It’s been my love forever.”

In high school, Whitley was a three-year letterman at Washington High School and was named the Pam-Pack’s 2014-15 MVP. He averaged 16.1 points his senior season and shot 86 percent at the free throw line. Whitley received offers from Division II and Division III schools such as Randolph College and Milligan College, but he chose to take his talents to ECU in 2016 and became a walk-on player when he received the invite by the ECU head coach at the time, Jeff Lebo.

“I chose to come to ECU because of the opportunity to play at the highest level,” Whitley said. “Being 30 minutes from home on top of that made it a no brainer to me. It’s definitely an adjustment. It’s cool being able to play against high level athletes and players."

Whitley scored the first collegiate points of his career during his sophomore year against the University of South Florida in the 90-52 win on Jan. 17, 2018. It was at the end of the game with less than 40 seconds left on the clock when Whitley took a right-handed floater and banked it in to score his first basket for the Pirates.

“It was really cool personally for me to score that basket,” Whitley said. “People close to me know how much went into that one basket. Even though it might not seem like a big thing a lot of work went into that one basket.”

Being a former walk-on himself, senior guard Addison Hill feels like he can relate to Whitley a bit more than the other players. Hill feels like he has a better connection to Whitley while having strong ties with him off the court as well being from the same county.

“Being a walk-on you kind of already got a chip on shoulder because you aren’t a scholarship player,” Hill said. “Would not say that you have to work twice as hard but you definitely have to work hard. John probably has the best work ethic on the team by far.”

Being side by side on a regular basis from class to the court, Hill described Whitley as having game and being unselfish. Hill also said Whitley is one of the best point guards he has ever played with. Although head coach Joe Dooley is not the one that invited Whitley to walk on, Dooley supports Whitley and said he knows more than anyone else what he brings to the table.

“He is consistent in his effort everyday,” Dooley said. “He has a very good knowledge of the game, and is a great leader by example. If there is an extra scholarship he definitely will be first in line.”

This season Whitley has played a total of 11 minutes for the Pirates, scoring two points. These two points came from a game at the University of Houston on Jan. 23 when Whitley went 2-2 at the free throw line. He also had one rebound against the University of Connecticut on Feb. 3 and one assist against Wichita State University on Feb. 6.

As the ECU men’s basketball team closes out its season, Whitley will be finishing his junior season with the program as a walk-on. Only time will tell if Whitley will begin the 2020 basketball season as a scholarship player or not.