A T-wall is a 20- to 25-foot steel-reinforced concrete structure used for blast protection. For 11 months in 2020, the T-walls surrounding the Al Asad Air Base in Western Iraq served as perfect rebounders for Henry White.
The former Army men’s lacrosse player used his free time to stay sharp at the sport that allowed him to pursue his dreams. He brought his STX Surgeon stick — he couldn’t sneak a pole into his luggage heading to Iraq and later Kuwait — and played wall ball for hours at a clip.
“I had a particular favorite wall that was very smooth and returned the ball pretty consistently,” White said. “There’s a big incentive to be sharp because when you miss a ball, you have to get it out of a big pile of what they call moon dust, which is just really fine sand.”
The sandy pitches where White fine-tuned his stick skills were a far cry from Michie Stadium. During his deployment in Iraq, White hit the wall as a means of passing the time. By the time he deployed to Kuwait, he had a much larger purpose.
By 2021, White and his wife, Callie, began envisioning life beyond the Armed Forces. He planned to study for his master’s degree in business, and a program in West Point’s admissions office offered him a chance to work and earn his MBA. He was selected as part of the program and narrowed his choices to Duke’s Fuqua School of Business or Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
After a trip to Durham and a chance meeting with Duke men’s lacrosse coach John Danowski in 2022, White made his decision — he intended to get his MBA at Duke and try out for the team. The biggest obstacle? He would play college lacrosse as a 30-year-old.
White played just one season of lacrosse at Army (2014), and his leftover eligibility offered him the chance to play an unprecedented final season of college lacrosse so many years later.
“It felt like I had unfinished business with the game after my time in college,” he said. “There was always that part of me that was like, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be awesome?’ Now it’s come to fruition.”
White has earned another opportunity to be a student-athlete, while Danowski adds a 30-year-old Army veteran with years of experience overseas to his program.
“When you’re serving our country, it’s not a game anymore,” Danowski said. “Most of our men will never be in those situations. There will be opportunities for Henry to say, ‘Hey, listen. This is a game. You’re taking it way too seriously. Back off and enjoy it.’ There will be times where Henry can look back and say, ‘This isn’t pressure, fellas.’”
White and his brother, Walker, always had a fascination with serving the United States — his grandfather served in Vietnam, and they listened to the stories wondering if one day, similar experiences would be in their futures.
He first picked up a lacrosse stick in Richmond, Virginia, eventually transferring to St. Christopher’s as his game developed and he received college recruiting attention. Joe Alberici offered him a chance to pursue his two dreams at Army. His brother had already enrolled in West Point. It was perfect.
White played the 2014 season for Army — a dream realized. He graduated from West Point in 2017 and entered the Air Defense Artillery Corps.
“I was drawn to that commitment to serve early on just looking up to my grandfather,” he said. “Army was just a really good fit for me to check both the boxes. My time playing for Coach Alberici, it was the steppingstone to where I am now.”