Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Courtney Whitson - Hometown Hero
11/30/2023 12:52:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Just a girl from Kingsport, Tennessee
KINGSPORT, Tenn.— If there was ever a representation of a player who chose to continue their athletic career at Middle Tennessee State because it represented exactly what home felt like for her, it'd be hard to argue against Lady Raider forward Courtney Whitson, a Kingsport, Tennessee, native.
Over the past four-plus years, the close-knit women's basketball team at Middle Tennessee has enjoyed one of its best stretches under Head Coach Rick Insell's tutelage, and right in the center of that has been Whitson, who has started in all 124 games she's played in her career, tied with Patrice Holmes for second most in program history and just eight starts away from breaking Ebony Rowe's record of 131. Behind all the rebounds, three-pointers, assists and steals, the one underlying factor that Whitson brings to the team, whether she is on the floor or not, is her ability to lead by keeping the group tight, a quality that she picked up from her early days falling in love with the game in her native Kingsport.
"I think the community is what sets Kingsport apart," Whitson said. "That's actually why I chose MTSU. It feels like a community and that inner circle made me feel like it was closer to back home. Overall, I just really love the family aspect that you get from it."
Of course, family is the most important thing a person has growing up, and from an early age Whitson and her mother, Sonya, formed a bond that taught her that keeping those you love the closest will help you achieve whatever it is that you set your mind to.
As a single mother, Sonya worked many long hours to provide for the family and always made sure that Whitson was able to spend as much time enjoying being a kid as possible. Through a couple of family friends, Clay Minton and Schaun Potts, who eventually would coach Whitson, they helped her discover her love for the game of basketball as just a kindergartener.
"I spent a lot of time just hanging out with family (growing up)," Whitson said. "I also give a lot of credit to my coaches Schaun Potts and Clay Minton for helping me fall in love with the game of basketball. My mom worked really hard to provide for our family growing up so that I could focus on basketball and both of my coaches played a big part in helping me fall in love with basketball."
Even as just a five-year-old, Whitson was learning how important it was to be a part of a team and how to not only be a resource for others in your community to lean on but to also lean on them and let them support you. The young girl who wanted to do nothing besides play with her dolls and become a teacher would quickly transition from not knowing what a layup was to spending her afternoons in the small rec-league and high school gyms in Kingsport perfecting her craft.
"(Minton) told my mom that I had a chance to be a basketball player and that they should sign me up," Whitson said. "I'll never forget the first time I went to a tryout and they had us get into layup lines and I looked up and asked 'What's a layup?' So obviously, they've helped me come a long way from then."
Whitson spent a lot of time in that gym as well as the gym at Dobyns Bennett High growing up, even skipping hanging out with friends at times to play basketball. It was an escape for the Blue Raider forward.
The people of Kingsport have deep roots in the community, and Whitson took hers in the game of basketball to give back and impact her hometown. Through hard work and perseverance, she gave her all to bring winning basketball to the girls' program at Dobyns Bennett.
Whitson and her teammates learned and grew together and by the time they got to high school, they already clicked well as a unit on the court because of the close-knit family aspect they'd developed playing in front of those same crowds on Saturday mornings in the small rec-league gym. That led to success in Whitson's first year wearing the maroon and grey, leading the team to a district title.
"Going into my freshman year, I had zero expectations and didn't know what to expect coming into high school," Whitson said. "It was my first time playing in a program setting and we ended up winning our first district championship that year. Coach Bill Francis did such a great job with us and we were so close together all the way through high school."
Though she played travel ball growing up, the high school setting and the close-knit bond she formed with her teammates represented the bond of the townspeople. Spending time watching film, going through the scout for the opposing team, conditioning and laughing and building chemistry in the locker room brought the group together and created a winning team. The success helped Whitson have an impact by re-writing the record books as the leading scorer and rebounder at Dobyns Bennett and leading the team to several successful years in her time as a Lady Warrior.
"When you think about the community and family aspect, I think our success literally brought the whole community together," Whitson said. "I can remember the night of that first district championship game in the gym at Volunteer High School and just going into it and thinking and not knowing what to expect. The gym was packed with the fans that I saw each and every night and it was just awesome to play in an environment like that."
Following her high school career, Whitson knew that she made the right choice in picking Middle Tennessee because it represented everything that embodied her childhood and the programs that she grew up playing in.
Still, realizing that she soon would have to move on and leave home for the first time was a bittersweet moment and one that her mom helped jumpstart what has been a memorable career as a Lady Raider.
"I can remember when I was first leaving to report to camp for the first time my freshman year at MTSU, my mom and I didn't say much to each other," Whitson said. "That's how we knew something big was happening. I'll never forget what she did that day, though. She laid a newspaper on my bed and it was an article in the Kingsport Times that was titled 'A guiding light.' It was a feature they had done about me, and it was a moment that reassured me that I could accomplish the same things at MTSU because of the community, its support and my faith."
Just like those nights packing into the gym at Volunteer High, a lot of the same faces are always in the crowd in the Murphy Center for Lady Raider home games. Over the past four years, there have always been faces that Whitson saw in Kingsport follow her to Murfreesboro to come and watch her play, along with several other fans who are regulars at Lady Raider games.
After they introduce the starting lineups, it's not uncommon to see Whitson run over to give a fan a quick hug or find a young child to throw a t-shirt to. Murfreesboro gives her that same feel that she experienced growing up in Kingsport and it's led to many of the same results the fifth-year senior experienced in her high school career.
"I can't tell you how many people from back home text me and ask me to see if they can get tickets or let me know that they are watching me," Whitson said. "It means a lot to me because I know that I'm playing for something bigger than just basketball. It's for the people who take the time to support me."
In turn, Whitson has given Blue Raider fans countless memories. Multiple all-conference team selections, multiple conference championships, or being just one of just five Lady Raiders to reach the 1,000-career point mark and the 800-rebound mark are just a few of the things Whitson has accomplished in her career in blue and white.
The thing that sets her apart? The fact that she is always on the floor. Whether it's a late-game situation when the Lady Raiders need a shot to come from behind, or they need tough defense to close out the opposition's best post-player, it's been very seldom that Coach Insell has had Whitson on the bench in her career. Just last season she averaged a Conference USA best 37.3 minutes per game.
The six-foot forward wouldn't have it any other way because she knows that both she and her teammates succeed the most when she is out there supporting them, and they and the fans support her.
Whitson's career at Middle Tennessee has been a mirror image of the player that she was in her early days growing up in Kingsport. She's still the same, hard-working and loving family member and teammate who does the little things and works as hard as necessary to help her and her teammates accomplish the goals that they set out to meet. The foundation set in loyalty to one another, whether it's Whitson and her community, family, coaches, or teammates, you know that day in and day out she's going to pour everything she has back into the people that have always been there and helped her reach the heights she has today.
"It's been an honor and a privilege to give back," Whitson said. "I know that my coaches have always worked for me and I'm going to work for them to give back to them and my teammates. I never want to take for granted all the people who poured so much into that five-year-old little girl and helped me accomplish what I have today. That's why I'm so passionate. I just want to give back to help that one person that might need that little bit of motivation to accomplish their goals and help them get where they want to go."
Over the past four-plus years, the close-knit women's basketball team at Middle Tennessee has enjoyed one of its best stretches under Head Coach Rick Insell's tutelage, and right in the center of that has been Whitson, who has started in all 124 games she's played in her career, tied with Patrice Holmes for second most in program history and just eight starts away from breaking Ebony Rowe's record of 131. Behind all the rebounds, three-pointers, assists and steals, the one underlying factor that Whitson brings to the team, whether she is on the floor or not, is her ability to lead by keeping the group tight, a quality that she picked up from her early days falling in love with the game in her native Kingsport.
"I think the community is what sets Kingsport apart," Whitson said. "That's actually why I chose MTSU. It feels like a community and that inner circle made me feel like it was closer to back home. Overall, I just really love the family aspect that you get from it."
Of course, family is the most important thing a person has growing up, and from an early age Whitson and her mother, Sonya, formed a bond that taught her that keeping those you love the closest will help you achieve whatever it is that you set your mind to.
As a single mother, Sonya worked many long hours to provide for the family and always made sure that Whitson was able to spend as much time enjoying being a kid as possible. Through a couple of family friends, Clay Minton and Schaun Potts, who eventually would coach Whitson, they helped her discover her love for the game of basketball as just a kindergartener.
"I spent a lot of time just hanging out with family (growing up)," Whitson said. "I also give a lot of credit to my coaches Schaun Potts and Clay Minton for helping me fall in love with the game of basketball. My mom worked really hard to provide for our family growing up so that I could focus on basketball and both of my coaches played a big part in helping me fall in love with basketball."
Even as just a five-year-old, Whitson was learning how important it was to be a part of a team and how to not only be a resource for others in your community to lean on but to also lean on them and let them support you. The young girl who wanted to do nothing besides play with her dolls and become a teacher would quickly transition from not knowing what a layup was to spending her afternoons in the small rec-league and high school gyms in Kingsport perfecting her craft.
"(Minton) told my mom that I had a chance to be a basketball player and that they should sign me up," Whitson said. "I'll never forget the first time I went to a tryout and they had us get into layup lines and I looked up and asked 'What's a layup?' So obviously, they've helped me come a long way from then."
Whitson spent a lot of time in that gym as well as the gym at Dobyns Bennett High growing up, even skipping hanging out with friends at times to play basketball. It was an escape for the Blue Raider forward.
The people of Kingsport have deep roots in the community, and Whitson took hers in the game of basketball to give back and impact her hometown. Through hard work and perseverance, she gave her all to bring winning basketball to the girls' program at Dobyns Bennett.
Whitson and her teammates learned and grew together and by the time they got to high school, they already clicked well as a unit on the court because of the close-knit family aspect they'd developed playing in front of those same crowds on Saturday mornings in the small rec-league gym. That led to success in Whitson's first year wearing the maroon and grey, leading the team to a district title.
"Going into my freshman year, I had zero expectations and didn't know what to expect coming into high school," Whitson said. "It was my first time playing in a program setting and we ended up winning our first district championship that year. Coach Bill Francis did such a great job with us and we were so close together all the way through high school."
Though she played travel ball growing up, the high school setting and the close-knit bond she formed with her teammates represented the bond of the townspeople. Spending time watching film, going through the scout for the opposing team, conditioning and laughing and building chemistry in the locker room brought the group together and created a winning team. The success helped Whitson have an impact by re-writing the record books as the leading scorer and rebounder at Dobyns Bennett and leading the team to several successful years in her time as a Lady Warrior.
"When you think about the community and family aspect, I think our success literally brought the whole community together," Whitson said. "I can remember the night of that first district championship game in the gym at Volunteer High School and just going into it and thinking and not knowing what to expect. The gym was packed with the fans that I saw each and every night and it was just awesome to play in an environment like that."
Following her high school career, Whitson knew that she made the right choice in picking Middle Tennessee because it represented everything that embodied her childhood and the programs that she grew up playing in.
Still, realizing that she soon would have to move on and leave home for the first time was a bittersweet moment and one that her mom helped jumpstart what has been a memorable career as a Lady Raider.
"I can remember when I was first leaving to report to camp for the first time my freshman year at MTSU, my mom and I didn't say much to each other," Whitson said. "That's how we knew something big was happening. I'll never forget what she did that day, though. She laid a newspaper on my bed and it was an article in the Kingsport Times that was titled 'A guiding light.' It was a feature they had done about me, and it was a moment that reassured me that I could accomplish the same things at MTSU because of the community, its support and my faith."
Just like those nights packing into the gym at Volunteer High, a lot of the same faces are always in the crowd in the Murphy Center for Lady Raider home games. Over the past four years, there have always been faces that Whitson saw in Kingsport follow her to Murfreesboro to come and watch her play, along with several other fans who are regulars at Lady Raider games.
After they introduce the starting lineups, it's not uncommon to see Whitson run over to give a fan a quick hug or find a young child to throw a t-shirt to. Murfreesboro gives her that same feel that she experienced growing up in Kingsport and it's led to many of the same results the fifth-year senior experienced in her high school career.
"I can't tell you how many people from back home text me and ask me to see if they can get tickets or let me know that they are watching me," Whitson said. "It means a lot to me because I know that I'm playing for something bigger than just basketball. It's for the people who take the time to support me."
In turn, Whitson has given Blue Raider fans countless memories. Multiple all-conference team selections, multiple conference championships, or being just one of just five Lady Raiders to reach the 1,000-career point mark and the 800-rebound mark are just a few of the things Whitson has accomplished in her career in blue and white.
The thing that sets her apart? The fact that she is always on the floor. Whether it's a late-game situation when the Lady Raiders need a shot to come from behind, or they need tough defense to close out the opposition's best post-player, it's been very seldom that Coach Insell has had Whitson on the bench in her career. Just last season she averaged a Conference USA best 37.3 minutes per game.
The six-foot forward wouldn't have it any other way because she knows that both she and her teammates succeed the most when she is out there supporting them, and they and the fans support her.
Whitson's career at Middle Tennessee has been a mirror image of the player that she was in her early days growing up in Kingsport. She's still the same, hard-working and loving family member and teammate who does the little things and works as hard as necessary to help her and her teammates accomplish the goals that they set out to meet. The foundation set in loyalty to one another, whether it's Whitson and her community, family, coaches, or teammates, you know that day in and day out she's going to pour everything she has back into the people that have always been there and helped her reach the heights she has today.
"It's been an honor and a privilege to give back," Whitson said. "I know that my coaches have always worked for me and I'm going to work for them to give back to them and my teammates. I never want to take for granted all the people who poured so much into that five-year-old little girl and helped me accomplish what I have today. That's why I'm so passionate. I just want to give back to help that one person that might need that little bit of motivation to accomplish their goals and help them get where they want to go."
Players Mentioned
F
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