Rutgers University wrestler Anthony White, a scholarship recipient who has excelled academically and on the wrestling mat, lives out days filled with studying, wrestling, and gratitude.
Anthony White stayed close to home to attend Rutgers because he wanted to wrestle in the Big Ten and study at the Rutgers Business School. A native of South Plainfield, only about five miles from Jersey Mike’s Arena, he competes for the nationally ranked Scarlet Knights wrestling team. He lives near campus in a New Brunswick house he shares with seven other friends and wrestling teammates. On Sundays, he goes home for meals with family and to do laundry. “Staying close to home could be a bad thing for some,” he says, “but it works out perfect for me. I get the best of all worlds.”
White qualified for the national championships in 2023 and this year has compiled a strong record on the mat in the 165-pound weight division. He is a redshirt sophomore, which means he is a junior academically but has two more years of eligibility. His plans are to wrestle two more years while earning a master’s degree. An accounting major, he has a 3.7+ GPA and has been named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and to the Academic All-Big Ten list. He benefits from a partial scholarship sponsored by donors Ron and Diane Shimanowitz.
What is a day in Anthony White’s life like as a Rutgers student-athlete? He shared an account of a day of practice, classes, and studying on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, early in this wrestling season, which concludes in March.
By Anthony White, as told to Sam Starnes GASN’04
6:30 a.m. When my alarm goes off, I sit there for about five minutes. I don’t go on my phone. I go outside and look at the sun, and then I make breakfast: four eggs, two pieces of toast and blueberries with some honey.
7 a.m. I love my mornings. I try to keep them blocked off and very serene for the most part. But on this day—an extreme day—I do some cost accounting problems and watch tutorial videos about it to get ready for a test the following day.
Cost accounting is hard, but once I start getting it down, I enjoy it. Our last exam was on job costing and process costing. The math is not overly complicated—you're not doing any crazy calculus stuff—but you have to know how to do it. You have to know what inventory you have, how to separate the inventory, and what units you count and what units you don't, what costs you add in here and what costs you don't add in here. It depends on a lot of factors.
8:30 a.m. I drive from our house in New Brunswick to the Athletic Performance Center on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway, where we start practice. I get to the locker room and change and get ready.
9 a.m. I start lifting weights, which takes an hour. I do a series of exercises: bench, deadlift, clean and jerk, squat, curls, lat pulldowns, and others. My best lift is the deadlift, with 505 pounds my personal best.
10 a.m. We go from lifting right into practice. We’ll do some sparring and we’ll live wrestle sometimes. We’ve got great guys in that room. Today I practiced with Sebastian Rivera. [Editor’s note: Rivera is an alumnus who will compete in the 2024 Olympics.] I wrestle with him a lot. After wrestling him, I feel prepared for any college wrestler I’ll face. I know I’m ready to go.
11:30 a.m. After practice, I take some time for recovery. I get in the ice tub for about 15 minutes two or three times a week. When you go up to your neck, you really have to control your breathing so you don’t freak out. That’s why most people can't do it. They’ll freak out because everything hits you at once because it’s a tub of water that is about 50 degrees. I love it. It helps you keep from getting sore. It also relieves a ton of stress. I feel great after I do it. I feel sense of clarity.
12 p.m. I shower and change and drive back to my house and have a prepared meal of salmon, rice, and broccoli for lunch. The team is fortunate that we have a nutritionist who tells us what to eat. I have to pay close attention and keep my weight. After lunch, I hang out and talk to some of the guys, and watch them play video games.
1:30 p.m. I drive back to campus for classes.
2 p.m. My classes are in the School of Business on the Livingston Campus, which is convenient since it’s right across the street from the Athletic Performance Center. Cost Accounting is my first class of the day. I’m ready for it after my recent study sessions.
3:20 p.m. I have a 30-minute break after class and I eat a snack and get ready for my next class.
3:50 p.m. My next class is Stat Methods for Business. In it, we open up a new Excel workbook, put in a big data set, and then follow the professor as she runs different models. In today’s class, we worked on regression models. It can be tedious work, but I like doing it. All the classes are challenging, and keep you back on your heels, but they are very beneficial.
5 p.m. After my second class ends, I go over to the Rodkin Academic Success Center on the Busch Campus. I’ll heat up another prepared salmon meal and watch some YouTube podcasts while I eat. I like watching the Huberman Lab Podcast. Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and he talks about all sorts of topics. I’m learning there too.
6 p.m. I study for four hours. I realize that’s kind of a crazy day, but it is usually what I do. Usually at some point during the day, I’ll think, ‘Man, I’m exhausted.’
I always cap the study session at 10, because sleep is very important.
10:30 p.m. I drive back home and get ready for bed at 11.
I’ve gotten into mindfulness recently, which has worked out perfectly. It's all about peace of mind. I do it at night when I’ll sit down and I’ll think about what I’m grateful for before I go to bed.
I am very grateful for all of my friends I wrestle with and share the house with. To live with seven of your best friends is the best thing ever. And I'm not home a lot too nowadays. So when I do get the chance to hang out with the guys, I love it.
Not every day is like this. On weekends I can relax. This past Sunday I went for a walk in the park, hung out with my roommates, and in the afternoon, I went to dinner at my grandma’s house. It was nice. She does my laundry too. She’s the best.
And being so close to home, my family get to come watch me wrestle. I couldn’t be happier with it.
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