Henderson enjoying the moment
NASHVILLE — Wrapped inside Tanner Poole’s bearhug, a wet Gary Henderson fully extended his arms with closed fists while inches above the ground and jubilantly yelled, not for the first time on Sunday night and not for the last.
Cole Gordon and Zach Neff moments earlier had carried together the blue jug of Powerade from Mississippi State’s dugout and poured it on Henderson, sparking an emotional chain reaction. Henderson, soaked, pumped his fist just before Poole grabbed him. Henderson did it again while yelling immediately after Poole placed him back down. Jake Mangum raised a sign that read, “#Omadawgs.” The crowd rhythmically chanted, “Gar-y, Gar-y, Gar-y.”
That’s when Henderson looked around and said in the loudest way he probably could, “Hey, we gotta meet in right field.”
In that spot, in the aftermath of Mississippi State’s 10-6 win over Vanderbilt that netted the Bulldogs an improbable berth in the College World Series, Henderson told the team that regardless of what happens in Omaha next week, “they will remember this for the
rest of their lives.”
“The Gatorade bath was great; my friends see it on TV,” Henderson later said in his dry-humored style. “But I’m more interested in what we did. We gave up three in the ninth and we won. That speaks to character. That speaks to belief. That speaks to toughness. I told them in the spring, everything we want is in front of us but you have to earn it. I’m really, really proud of those guys, man.”
Henderson won’t soon be forgetting this, either. The 55-year-old has coached for 30 years. He was a head coach at Kentucky for eight years, never reaching a super regional. Tasked with the unenviable job as interim coach after Andy Cannizaro’s forced resignation in February, Henderson led the Bulldogs to Omaha as a search for a permanent head coach existed in the background. That search is ongoing, as is Mississippi State’s season.
“It’s been really unusual,” Henderson said. It still is. John Cohen hasn’t discussed publicly any candidates for the job. Therefore, it remains unclear how legitimate a candidate Henderson is, despite the Bulldogs’ first trip to Omaha since 2013. Cohen has never dismissed Henderson’s candidacy, either, though, and those close to program insist that nothing is off the table in terms of choices (three prominent head coaches have, however, publicly pulled their names out). As long as the Bulldogs are still playing, the expectation is that a deal won't be reached and an announcement won't be made.
Henderson has earned the job, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the right fit for a program looking for someone to lead it for the next several years. That's Cohen's call. It’s an interesting situation. Cohen is not one to decide based on the body of a few weeks, and he won’t. But how does a trip to the College World Series change things, if it does at all? At the least, is Cohen forced to re-evaluate Henderson, a man he has known for decades?
One part of this whole equation is undeniable.
“The roller-coaster ride he has been on for the last 24 months,” Cohen told the Clarion Ledger Monday, “is pretty amazing when you think about it.”
Henderson, who succeeded Cohen at Kentucky, joined Mississippi State as a pitching coach in June 2016. Cohen was named athletic director later that year and Cannizaro replaced Cohen as head coach. Henderson managed a pitching staff sabotaged by myriad injuries to a super regional. That was all normal compared to his last four months.
“I know who Gary Henderson is,” Cohen said. “He is a real person. He doesn’t have a fake bone in his body. He leads by example. He is a brilliant pitching mind. He is a great father. He is a great husband. He is one of the most loyal persons I have ever been around. I am so happy for him and I could not be more thrilled for the Henderson family. He is very deserving of coaching this team in the world series.”
Would the Bulldogs play for Henderson, hitting coach Jake Gautreau and assistants Mike Brown and A.J. Gaura again?
“Absolutely,” Mangum said. “We’re going to Omaha, and we get to keep playing for them. June 16, we are going back to war with these coaches. And if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be in this situation. We wouldn’t. A lot of people gave up on us in February and even early March. They didn’t. They stuck with us. They never gave up on us.
“They gave us an identity, a plan to follow and everybody bought in from top to bottom. We like when a plan comes to fruition.”
Henderson still remembers the exact details of those first days of his interim tenure.
“Was it Monday morning or Tuesday morning?” Mangum asked during the post-game press conference. “Tuesday morning,” Henderson said. “What was it, 7:30?” Mangum asked. “7:15,” Henderson said. The group met on Feb. 27, a day before playing Jackson State, inside the Mississippi State baseball coaches’ office.
“That was when we learned our head coach was no longer our head coach,” Mangum said. “And Coach Henderson would take over that role.”
That was when Mangum placed his hand on Henderson’s back during the press conference.
“He gave us an identity,” Mangum said. “From that moment on, we bought in.”
Henderson spoke directly that day, using a black-and-white tone, as he put, as he stressed things such as integrity and maturity. He was patient, experienced and optimistic. He was just what the Bulldogs needed. For Henderson, the ride wasn’t easy, though. Opposing fans often heckled from the stands to him, referring to him as, “Mr. Interim.”
“That’s as awkward then as it is right now as I tell you that,” Henderson said. "Nobody wants to have someone go through that in life. But that's where I was."
And yet, Henderson likely wouldn’t trade the experience, even if the ending is still unknown.
"I really admire our coaching staff," Henderson said. "Those guys got on board, no hidden agenda. It was, '(Henderson), what do we need to do?' Then I let them do it. I told them what I wanted and they did it. Brown and Jake get all the credit for what happened with those kids offensively. That development has been unbelievable. You don't see that often. Those guys are good. They are real people, my coaching staff. The kids got on board. They were looking for leadership, we gave it to them I'm direct, they responded. That's how that worked."