Catawba great returns home

WINSTON-SALEM — No one was happier than Keith Henry when his boss, Jim Grobe, was called to be Wake Forest’s new football coach.

The Grobe hire lit a fire under Henry, because as Grobe’s outside linebackers coach, Henry knew he had been handed a return ticket to his home state of North Carolina.

Henry’s been away for a spell. The powerfully built, 30-something coach still looks like he could play for the Packers, but it’s already been 17 years since he came out of football-mad Maiden and entered Catawba College.

During his four-year term at Shuford Stadium, Henry established himself as one of the best ever to put on the blue. He was a menacing free safety from 1985-88, mobile enough to tie the school record for interceptions (20), yet strong enough at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds to set another mark for career tackles (398).

Four times all-conference, Henry was in on a ridiculous 125 tackles his senior year, a figure which made him a first-team NAIA All-American.

Beyond those impossible individual stats, Henry impacted the Indians’ team. In ’88, the Tribe finally made it over a huge hump. They went 8-4, posting their first winning season in a dozen years. The Indians reached the playoffs for the first time in school history and made the school’s first postseason appearance of any kind since a trip to the Pythian Bowl in 1949.

Two plays from his spectacular senior season wander through Henry’s mind on occasion. They always make him smile.

He can still see Mars Hill marching to the Catawba 5. Down by eight, the Lions had time for one more play. They never got it off. Henry blitzed and sacked the quarterback to end the game.

Then there was the 41-21 rout of Lenoir-Rhyne in Henry’s last game at Shuford. That was the game that clinched that elusive SAC-8 title and earned that historic playoff berth. Needing one last interception to tie Brent Miller’s school record, Henry picked off the Bears’ quarterback in the closing moments.

How smooth and smart and smashing was Henry? All you need to know is he was inducted into the Catawba Hall of Fame in 2000, the SACHall of Fame last March.

“Wonderful honors,” said Henry, shortly after Wake held off Duke last Saturday at Groves Stadium. “Everything in my career worked out. Looking back, if I could go anywhere in the country, to any school in the country, I’d go to Catawba all over again. Catawba was a great experience. I could go on and on about that place.”

After graduation in the spring of ’89, Henry coached a year at Bandys High School. Then he got a shot at pro ball. He put in two seasons in the Arena Football League, one with the Albany Firebirds, one with the Charlotte Rage.

But that was it.

“You’d always like to play a little longer,” said Henry. “But you can’t chase that pro dream forever. Comes a time when you have to think about family and their security. That’s when you make the decision it’s time to coach.”

Henry’s assistant coaching road led to Charleston Southern for a year, then to North Carolina A&T. At A&T, he coached three positions, yet found time to coach a conference champion baseball team and make headway on a Masters degree.

Henry made a move toward the big-time in 1995 when he met Grobe through a mutual coaching buddy. Henry’s been with Grobe — he affectionately calls him “Grow-bee” — ever since. For the last six years at Ohio University, now at Wake.

“I’ve loved coaching,” said Henry. “Every day you see something new. And there’s great pride and joy in what you’re doing.”

Somehow Henry grew to love the awful hours, the eyestrain from watching film, the unsolicited advice from thousands of head coaches in the stands on Saturdays, the constant danger of failure and being told its time to move on. And along the way, Henry’s become a coaching jack-of-all-trades, and a master of some.

“Defensive backs, linebackers, receivers, running backs, I’ve coached ’em all,” chuckled Henry. “If you’re around long enough, you see it and you learn it. Just don’t ask me to coach the offensive line.”

And please don’t ask Henry to forget about his alma mater, especially now that he’s on duty less than an hour away.

“I keep up with Catawba and look for their scores,” he said, as he patted his young Deacon cap-wearing son on the head. “I’m thrilled with Catawba’s success. That (Coach David) Bennett does a great job.”

Henry must do a great job, too. Even if Wake’s defense gave up 35 to the lowly Blue Devils.

“Yeah, but we learned from it,” he said, sounding a bunch like Bennett. “We learned we have to play 60 minutes, no matter the score. Our guys learned they’ve got to keep making plays. They learned they can’t hide when things go wrong.”

And speaking of hiding, this Catawba grad doesn’t attempt to conceal the elusive goal he must accomplish before he can consider his football odyssey complete.

“To become a head coach,” he said with a hopeful smile. “That’s my ultimate dream.”

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com .