Ellsworth CC head coach Matt White steps down after leave, cites lack of resources including just 6 scholarships

Matt White's time at Ellsworth Community College is officially over.

The Iowa Falls JuCo program's head coach announced his departure in a statement posted to social media, writing that he and the school have "separated as well as settled any and all outstanding issues on an amicable basis."

Last month, we shared the news that Ellsworth had placed White on leave three games into his third season. Athletic director Nate Forsyth confirmed the leave to the Times-Citizen at the time but gave no reason, and defensive coordinator Chris Bonta stepped in as interim head coach.

White's statement doesn't address the leave. It does make a strong case for his tenure leading the program.

"Please let it be known that I brought organization, structure, accountability and discipline to a program in chaos," White wrote. "Never once did I allow myself or others in my program to cut corners."

He was also rather blunt about the resources he had to work with.

"The reality is that I could never be truly great here and build a national championship caliber program with only 6 scholarships and 2 part time coaches," he wrote, adding that taking over a program that has had six head coaches in 10 years "was definitely not for the weak."

White also wrote that his teams broke a conference win drought dating back to 2017 and that the program drove record enrollment at the college. He closed by thanking the players who "bought in" and said he hopes the program "receives the full institutional support it needs to sustain success."

Ellsworth hired White in December 2023 out of a pool of more than 60 applicants, with Forsyth calling him "the best fit for the current state of our program." 

White came to Iowa Falls after four seasons as defensive coordinator and director of football performance at Division II UVA-Wise. Before that, he spent a season as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Kentucky Christian, and worked his way from assistant head coach and special teams coordinator to head coach and offensive coordinator at Los Angeles Valley College. His first coaching job was at Montana Tech, where he coached the defensive line and served as head strength coach. He played his JUCO ball in-state at Iowa Central.

The climb in Iowa Falls was steep. The Panthers went 2-9 the year before he arrived, and White told KMAland this summer that "the cupboard was beyond bare." His first team carried 23 players and finished 1-10. Year two, Ellsworth brought in 48 transfers and improved to 3-7.

This fall opened with a 50-6 win over Minnesota West, followed by a 76-3 loss to #2 Hutchinson and a 63-7 loss to Iowa Central. That left White at 5-19 overall when he was placed on leave. In the first game under Bonta, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M handed the Panthers a 54-0 loss in Iowa Falls.

\Six scholarships and a pair of part-time assistants is a hard way to line up against a schedule that includes powers like Hutchinson and Iowa Central who are funded on a completely different level, and anyone who has coached at an under-resourced program knows that feeling. How this chapter ended will leave some questions unanswered, though, and the school has not publicly addressed the separation.

Ellsworth now heads into another coaching search, its seventh head coach in roughly a decade by White's count.

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.