SPRINGDALE — A chance meeting nine years ago has led to a golden career opportunity for Moe Henry.
Henry was a young coach looking for a spring sport to assist in when former Springdale High baseball coach David McGinnis saw on his resume that he'd played baseball at Nashville.
PROFILE
Moe Henry
School: Shiloh Christian
Notable: Was an assistant coach at Springdale High in 2005. … Served as an assistant baseball coach at Shiloh Christian last season. … Was a three-year starter as a prep player at Nashville.
Needing someone to assist with the baseball program in the spring of 2005, McGinnis convinced Henry to take the position. It was the first year of the Springdale school's split and the longtime Bulldogs coach was short-handed for the younger kids in his program.
"We needed a sophomore coach and he was available at the time," McGinnis recalled. "He stepped in and did a great job. He's great with kids."
Henry only assisted with baseball for one season at Springdale. With a young son at home and another on the way, the time constraints of spring baseball were too much at the time, so he moved on to another spring sport after that season.
But he never forgot baseball and the smell of new leather and fresh-cut green grass completely out of his system.
Last spring, highly successful Shiloh Christian baseball coach Jimmy Harris, who had guided the Saints to three consecutive Class 4A state championships, accepted the head baseball coaching position at Stillwater, Okla.
Henry, who was Harris' assistant, jumped at the chance to take over a championship-caliber program.
"The tradition here was already in place," Henry said. "The program had been to four straight state championships and won three. The kids here already know how to win."
When he was named the Saints' baseball coach, one of the first calls he made was to the man who first gave him a chance to coach baseball. McGinnis no longer coaches baseball at Springdale, but he continues to keep in touch with Henry through their church.
"I just watched and learned a ton from coach McGinnis," he said. "Most definitely I would consider him a mentor. He wished me good luck, and he keeps up with me. His family is good friends with my family. I keep him in the loop."
McGinnis said one of Henry's strongest attributes, especially early in his career, was an ability to develop strong relationships with his players.
"That's his personality, the kids just related to him so well," McGinnis said. "I was always an intense coach and he could always kind of lighten things up a little bit. I'd jump on a kid and he'd come back around and talk to them and say 'you know how coach McGinnis is,' and he was able to smooth things out and keep the players' spirits up."
The Saints won their first two games under Henry leading into today's 5A-West Conference opener at Morrilton. The doubleheader will start at 4:30 p.m.
As an African-American baseball coach, Henry hopes his new leadership role helps more African-American kids gravitate toward the sport, where numbers have steadily declined over the past two decades. Even Henry's two sons have felt the pull away from the sport.
"It's a struggle even with my own kids," he said. "Because they play all sports. But to them, baseball is the least easiest. I think African-American kids tend to gravitate more toward football or basketball because they have that instant gratification.
"Now, just being in this role that I have, hopefully I can keep them in baseball because, and I'm their dad so I'm a little biased, but they are both pretty good baseball players."
Henry said coaching baseball, his sons are now constantly around the program and older players, giving them a more up-close look at the game with players they know and can identify with on a daily basis.
"I think just being around any sport makes the kids want to do it," he said. "And to see older kids do it and have passion and want to do it, I think it makes a big difference."
Henry said Kord Offenbacker, a junior pitcher/infielder for the Saints, is one of the players his sons have made a connection with.
"Kord has been tremendous and my youngest gravitates to Kord. He wants to wear Kord's number 5. And I don't even know how or why he picked Kord out, but he loves Kord. So being able to see older kids play baseball and have the passion and work hard and being around it, I think that's a tremendous advantage.
"And I just love the fact that my kids do love to be around it."
Sports on 03/20/2014