It almost didn’t happen

As Terrell Henry’s rise to stardom on the football field transcends, it was close to never happening.

Rewind back to the start of Henry’s junior season and football wasn’t really a desire for the Mason County senior wide receiver and defensive back.

He had just come off a sophomore season splitting quarterback reps with Ashton Adams and didn’t really play much defense since he was one of the main signal callers. In the COVID shortened season in 2020, Henry threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns, ran for another 147 yards and four touchdowns in seven games.

Then he took off in basketball. A sophomore season in which he scored 482 points and pulled down 172 rebounds in 23 games, Henry catapulted himself as one of the top players in the 10th Region.

Football was now an afterthought at the tradition rich, basketball crazed school. His brother Dorian, who was the 10th Region boys’ basketball Player of the Year in the 2014-15 season, had an influence on him too.

“It’s always been basketball. Growing up watching Dorian (Henry) play all the time, I played it at a young age. Keise (Tykeise Henry) played it too, so I mean, it’s just something that I fell in love with as a little kid,” Henry said. “At the time, I wanted to focus on basketball.”

So the start of the 2021 football season began in mid-July, Henry not out on the practice field.

But a text message and his gridiron teammates helped Henry change his mind.

“These guys out here, they were on me every day starting in July. Coach Wynn texted me, so I decided to come in one day and talk to coach. I didn’t want to let my brother’s down. So I just decided to come back and play and it’s been a good decision so far,” Henry said.

When speaking with Wynn, Henry expressed he no longer wanted to play quarterback, Wynn thinking of how many options were available for the 6-foot-3 athlete on the field.

“I hadn’t talked to him, didn’t know him. Just wanted him to feel it for himself. Shot him a text and told him to just have a convo with me. He came in one day, talked about how he’d fit in. We were fine with him not wanting to play QB. Told him to play safety and then eventually receiver. Came out for a day to try it out, came out the next day and the rest is history obviously,” Wynn said. “His teammates helped, it’s always fun to be around your buddies. Those guys talked to him and they know he’s a good athlete and helps us on the field. You see a kid like Terrell and you want him on your team.”

Henry’s junior year was primarily focused on defense, the backbone at safety, basically eliminating anything over the middle past 10 yards on a Royals defense that ranked near the top of 3A. He tallied 40 tackles, intercepted four passes and recovered two fumbles.

“Windshield wiper”, as Wynn calls him. Henry’s instincts paired with his speed makes him the prototypical safety in today’s game.

“It’s sick. I coached a D-1 kid at Newport and he didn’t cover the ground that Terrell does. Remembering a play against Fleming last year, he had to go opposite hash at an angle, broke 50 yards in less than five seconds to break up a pass that would have been a TD,” Wynn said. “He’s long, athletic, tall, covers ground and his instincts are second to none. The two Newport kids that I coached played safety and went on to Indiana State and Lindsey Wilson. Terrell is ahead of them with his understanding of the game. Terrell makes a lot of calls in the back end. Coach Ravencrcaft makes a lot of calls for the back end of the defense and we use Terrell’s input a lot.”

Three games into his senior season, Henry has added more for the Royals, now on the offensive side at receiver. He got minimal reps last year but did make some highlight reel grabs in the Royals streak breaking win over Fleming County and a jump over a defender for a ball against East Carter in the playoffs.

He started the 2022 season on the first play from scrimmage with a diving 33-yard grab against Newport and has continued to make big chunk yard plays since. He’s developed a nice connection with quarterback Keshaun Thomas, clearing 100 yards receiving in consecutive games and is averaging over 30 yards per catch with nine receptions for 277 yards and two touchdowns. The receiving yards currently has him fourth in 3A.

“His development as a wide receiver is only going to get better. You take two postseason games last year and two and a half games this year and he’s basically played four and a half games at receiver. He’s only a few games in and only going to get better. He’s tall, high points the ball and gains ground on you quick. You don’t really realize how fast he is with how he strides,” Wynn said. “It might be hard to match the numbers he’s put up early on, but you’ll see teams start to double him and then that opens up an Isaac (Marshall) or KG (Walton).”

He’s still a “windshield wiper” too, picking off two passes so far this season and laying some hits making some think about the next time they go over the middle. Henry points to playing quarterback his sophomore year as to why he’s so successful on the defensive side.

“I think playing quarterback helped me at safety. I feel like I know the reads that the quarterbacks are trying to make. I know sometimes the quarterbacks, they’re going to look me off and I understand that, so I feel like playing quarterback it actually helped me a lot playing safety. I feel like I can be one step ahead,” Henry said.

Interest at the next level is there, Henry attended Eastern Kentucky University’s summer football camp and has had communication with some other schools. Basketball is an option as well as Henry’s senior year will have him climb up the leaderboard of all-time scorers in Mason County history. He has a chance to clear 2,000 points for his career, only four Royals in the program ever able to accomplish the feat. It will be a tough decision for Henry on what to do next year as he gets closer to graduation.

“I haven’t decided which I’m going to do for college yet. It’s going to be one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Henry said. “I never really thought about playing college football until Coach Wynn brought it up to me in one of the first couple practices we had. Just that confidence in me, I started working on it to improve and I’m going to just keep trying to improve.”

Whatever Henry decides, he’ll have the community behind him. Often referred to as “Rell”, Henry is adored by the youth and looked up upon by his teammates. You’ll see him taking pictures with little kids after games and he remembers growing up when Chris Lofton and Darius Miller were stars of the town too. While many remember Lofton for his play on the hardwood, his numbers on the football field were off the charts too as a receiver.

“There’s a lot of people who look up to me, taking pictures with little kids after the game after winning district tournaments and stuff like that. I just want to lead by example, I want everyone to follow my footsteps. I just want to be a good leader. You know that’s what Darius and Chris always were and I just want to continue in their footsteps,” Henry said.

Henry and the Royals are on their bye week this week as they’ll play their fourth of the final four road/neutral games to start the season next week at Boyd County, looking to go 4-0 for the first time since 2014. They’ll then have their home opener September 23 when they host Pendleton County on the newly surfaced turf field.