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AFM Magazine


Blessed Sacrament

A Team That Could
by: Richard Carrier
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Entering into spring practice Mike Henderson, head Football Coach at tiny Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Academy has a lot to reflect on.

Just seven short seasons ago he took over the High School's 0-10 program and capped off last season with consecutive C.A.A. State Championships. a remarkable achievement. An amazing achievement considering the severely limited physical and personnel assets he was given to work with.

Mike Henderson was hired as the Head Football Coach at Huguenot Academy in rural Powhatan county Virginia in 1997. Two years out of the University of Richmond where he played running back, “you really need to call me a blocking back, I hardly ever carried the ball.” He was working with a friend in the landscaping business, coaching part time as an assistant high school coach and attending classes to get his teaching certificate when Huguenot hired him. With his limited experience “I had no business being hired as a head coach” claims Henderson. The first year he suited up 16 players. Three of those were eighth graders and two were ninth graders. Unbeknownst to Coach Henderson the school was in serious financial difficulty. There were no assistant coaches in the budget; the field was minimal, stands almost non-existent, no press box and a weight room floor that was rotten. Coach Henderson personally rebuilt the weight room floor and coacher his new team to a 2-8 record on his own. The next year (1998) 20 players suited up, but with only four returning who had ever played football Huguenot went 1-9. Huguenot Academy then merged wit the smaller Blessed Sacrament Academy to solve both schools' financial problems. Coach Henderson was rewarded with his first full time assistant. More families became involved in both the school and its athletic program. “We concentrated on player development. Of course everybody had to play both ways, so we just worked on basic skills, solid football techniques.” Still with very limited coaching hours available, Coach Henderson made some decisions that would shape the long-range development of a Championship program. He decided to concentrate coaching hours on the development of his youngest players. “We felt that it might take three or four years, but in three or four years these younger kids would really know how to play.” He scraped the precision based Winged T for the fundamentals based Pro sets which he still runs today. It is a basic offense with a very limited number of plays. Lots of different formations, but still the same basic plays practiced diligently to as close to perfection as possible. Defensively he installed a basic 5-3 and will switch to a 5-2 depending on the personnel he has available. Nothing fancy here either. Committed to a “bend but don't break” philosophy, he almost never blitzes. “Generally speaking, I don't think any team at this level is built to sustain a fifteen play-seventy five yard drive, particularly with the pass.” Playing to stop the drive or force a turnover, the Coach works to shut down the run and is more than willing to give up the short pass patterns. “They can have those all day long. Routes are not going to be run right consistently, balls are going to be dropped or intercepted, but we're not going to let you have five yards a pop running the ball. If we blitz we might occasionally get that three-yard loss, but we are more likely to give up a big play.”

1999 brought a 3-7 record, another full time assistant, increased funding for new weights, a press box and enthusiastic new parental, faculty and student support. “We were only 3-7 but we got better. The kids that we started out with began to really learn the game.”

The 2000 team was only 3-6 and again added an assistant. Now with four full time coaches at practice every day the players' skills were noticeably improved. “We were really making improvements, making strides. We were only 3-6 but we were steadily getting more competitive.”

2001 was primed to be a breakthrough year, but the star tailback who had been developing for three years, never took the field. He broke his leg in the first week of practice. The Knights went 3-6 again, but again were improving and in every game. Teams that had beaten Blessed Sacrament by 30 points in past years were now escaping with close victories.

In 2002 the breakthrough came. The players who had formed the core were now juniors and seniors and they knew it was going to be their year. “As the program improved we were able to attract some better athletes, but for the most part it was the development of the core players we had started out with.” Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Academy posted a 9-2 record and lost by a touchdown in the V.C.C. State Championship game. The Knights won the State Championship in 2003 and successfully defended the title in 2004.

High School programs that achieve to this level are normally blessed with a core of superior athletes supported by less gifted players. Blessed Sacrament has had few naturally gifted athletes and has relied almost exclusively on developing players from an extremely limited talent pool. The local public high school is rich in football tradition (they also won their State Championship in 2003) and has a pool of 600 male students from which to draw. Blessed Sacrament has a nominal male enrollment of 60 to 65 boys! “We have to work with what we have and concentrate on skills development.” As one example Coach Henderson recalls a 5'11” “very soft” 260 pound freshman who was unable to run up the conditioning hill the first day of practice. In a public school program he would have been cut, but we kept him, worked with him. And he appreciated it. He got in the weight room, dropped twenty pounds, built muscle and twice became an All District nose tackle.”

Stressing fundamentals Coach Henderson eschews a passing offense. “We're going to line up and try to run it down your throat.” He currently has “the most accurate passer I have ever coached” but he throws the ball an average of only six times per game. It's not like he didn't have a target. The Knights will graduate their 6'6” 270 pound, very athletic tight end in May. He caught a total of fifteen passes in last fall's Championship run. Kyle Jolly came into the program wanting to be a quarterback. He had good speed, great feet and superior athleticism. True to his “fundamentals” philosophy Coach Henderson put Jolly at defensive end/tight end. In his senior year Coach moved him to defensive tackle in the 5-3 set. At this position he drew constant double and even triple teams and freed up the Knights' smallish but quick linebackers to lead the team in tackles. On offense, Jolly often lined up as an H back and became a “devastating blocker.” Kyle Jolly bought into the Coach's philosophy and was rewarded for his commitment to team play by being the first football player in the county to be offered a scholarship to a Division One program. Jolly will attend The University of North Carolina on a full scholarship. He will convert to offensive tackle under Coach Bill Bunting at Chapel Hill.

Coach Henderson started with a zero win program, a commitment to a philosophy, the patience of the School's Administration (“they were very understanding and supportive”), the diligence of his assistant coaches and the support of the boosters club, students and alumni and has built an exemplary program. With an average student body of 175 and a potential player pool of 65 boys, his teams' back-to-back State Championships are a truly outstanding achievement.





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