Evan White, a River Falls High School Class of 2025 graduate, has already gone on to reach great heights both literally and figuratively, scaling the Warped Wall to reach the finish during the American Ninja Warrior (ANW) qualifiers in Las Vegas on national television.

White appeared in episode five of the season 17 qualifiers which aired June 30, finishing the course in one minute and 16 seconds to take one of the top times. Now, White moves on to the semifinals, with the first semifinal episode airing July 14 on NBC, available to stream the next day on Peacock.

“To be able to represent my city, and River Falls, but also Wisconsin as a whole is such a huge honor,” White said. “I never expected that I would have been in that position to do that sort of thing, so it’s kind of mind blowing and just really surreal.”

When White was 7 years old, he discovered ANW on TV, but had no real access to a ninja gym. His family made a move when he was eight, putting him just minutes away from one. After attending a summer camp at the gym, White was fully hooked.

White was a part of this year’s graduating class at River Falls, and although he spent some time in online school, the ANW experience helped him reconnect to some of the people he has missed.

“It’s just amazing,” White said. “When I was in online school, I didn’t really still communicate with a lot of the people, my peers. Just having that support of kind of reconnecting through this has been really great.”

His training routine has involved waking up, doing some schoolwork, hitting a morning workout, getting some more schoolwork done, going to work and finally doing some course training at night. The hardest work of all, though, was getting the call to be on the show.

“I’ve been competing for a lot of my life,” White said. “A lot of my training partners have actually gotten the call to compete… I’ve applied those same years and just haven’t gotten the call. Honestly, just getting on the show, for me, was one of the harder things that I’ve had to overcome in this sport.”

Despite the situation being nerve wracking for many, White does not get stressed out living his dream. He had the previous experience from competing in ANW Junior, so a few more cameras did not change anything.

“I call that my little warmup for American Ninja Warrior,” White said. “I don’t think about it as much as being on TV and being on national television as much as getting to live out my dream and something that I’ve worked hard for for almost half my life.”

White wants to use his opportunity in the spotlight to share the word of Jesus.

“I do this because I enjoy it, but I also do it to just share the word and continue to preach about Jesus Christ and all he has done for our kingdom,” White said. “That’s my number one priority at the end of the day, and then everything else comes next. As long as I can just go out and do everything I can do on the course and off the course for him, then I’m successful.”

White said the sport has brought him many more friends and family, and he is forever grateful to get the chance to compete on the top stage.