The Legacy of Coach Keith Henry
As cryptic posts began showing up on Facebook about the Henry family early on December 5, I began to see red flags. I called a friend in Coalfield and asked, “What is going on?” At that point I received the same devastating news that later sent shockwaves throughout Morgan County, “Keith Henry had passed away due to Covid-19.” Overcome with emotion, my mind quickly raced through memories of Keith since I first met him five years ago. While questioning “How can this be,” I found myself dealing with the sober reality of death that each of us must face at some point in our lives.
I first met Keith in 2015 when I began photographing high school sports in Morgan County. It was September 11, 2015, and Coalfield faced Wartburg at home. Even though we had never met before, Keith made me feel welcome on the Coalfield sideline, flashing his characteristic smile. Keith’s Yellow Jackets won an impressive 43-8 victory over the Bulldogs that evening.
It was in the post-game huddle that I sensed that there was something special about this man and his approach, not just to football, but to life. As I stood there listening, Keith reviewed what went well in the game and talked about the things that needed improvement. Rather than a coach speaking to his players, it seemed more like a father speaking to his kids, speaking words of encouragement, mentoring them, but most of all loving them.
Many will speak of Keith’s record as a coach, and he did in fact have a phenomenal record in his 13 years at Coalfield – going 115-49, making 13 playoff appearances, and playing in one state title game. He also coached two Mr. Football winners. Clearly, there was something special about Coalfield football during Keith’s tenure, something almost mystical. After observing the program for five years, I am convinced that the difference was the ability of Keith and his coaching staff to mold individuals into a cohesive team – a team that collectively was greater than the sum of its individual parts.
To me, Keith Henry was in no small way a modern-day Leonardo Davinci. Whereas, Davinci sculpted in cold hard stone, Keith Henry sculpted living, breathing human beings. He sculpted boys into young men, teaching them discipline, instilling in them a work ethic, and imparting to them a common vision that could only be achieved by cohesive teamwork. Most importantly, Keith had something that Davinci could never have – a close personal relationship with the young men that he sculpted.
Many of these young men were from shattered homes where they lacked a traditional father-son relationship. For these young men, Keith and his coaching staff played the role of surrogate father, treating each as his own son. I once interviewed a Coalfield player and asked him what football meant to him. In his words, football is all about “brotherhood…it brings so many people into your life that you never thought would be in your life, and father figures, too. Coalfield football teaches us life. That’s what Coach Henry really puts into us. He really teaches us how to become a man.”
Keith Henry taught all of us that coaching legacy is not measured by win-loss records, but by the positive impact that a coach has on the lives of his players. I have witnessed the character of some of Keith’s players transformed through his love and leadership. Most of us are fortunate to have such a transforming effect on the lives of two or three people in our entire lives. In his 13 years at Coalfield, Keith likely had more than 200 players spend four years under his positive influence. Without question, many of those young men had their lives transformed and the effect will be passed down to subsequent generations. That is what true legacy is all about. That is the legacy that Keith Henry leaves behind.