THE LIONS’ DEN | Baker’s plan: To bring winning ways back to Henderson
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Second-year Henderson High School football coach Clay Baker played football for the Lions in 2001-’03.
Football was different in East Texas then – a lot different.
Traditions and expectations were different then, also, certainly not the same as they are today, tomorrow and this season.
Yeah, beginning his second season as the head coach at his alma mater, Baker – the son of legendary former Carlisle coach Rocky Baker – was named head coach for the Lions in March, with hopes he and his current staff, made up of four other former Henderson players, can move the needle in the process of rebuilding a once-proud, tradition-rich program into a winner.
“We were 2-8 (in our first year) last season. We won our first game against Liberty-Eylau and our last (game) against Jacksonville.”
The team averaged 27.4 points per game, but the defense yielded an average of 38.5.
HENDERSON LIONS
District: 9-4A, Division I
Coach: Clay Baker (Second season at the school (2-8; 43-17 overall)
Program’s all-time record: 590-436-54
Stadium: Lion Stadium; 700 Lion Street, Henderson, Texas, 75654
2023 result: 2-8
Returning lettermen/starters: 22/10
Lettermen lost: 18
Offense: No-huddle spread
Defense: multiple
Baker’s been a coach 15 years, but only a head coach the last six, five of those at Carlisle High. He continued. “We made strides last year and we’ve made more this past off-season and during the summer. I believe we’re getting there. One of the big things for me was to bring in coaches who were Henderson graduates and know what it was like back in the day.
“No kid in our program has been to or in the playoffs. It’s very important for us (as coaches) to meet those expectations and get back to the traditions we got to experience when we played here. To get back to the point where our kids expect to win.”
There’s no reason to expect differently. Baker’s won before – a lot, as a player at Henderson, as a baseball player in college, as an assistant for father at Carlisle, and as a head coach for the Indians.
Baker went 43-17 at Carlisle (12-1 his first season), following in his father’s footsteps – the elder Baker was 111-40 there from 2005-17.
The Lions, at one point a playoff mainstay, won the Class 3A Division I State Championship in 2010, beating Chapel Hill 28-21. Henderson only had three coaches between 1966-2001: Fred Jackson, then Jim Watson, and of course, Dennis Alexander.
There have been a few since then. Phil Castles was fairly successful from 2013-20, going 62-33, and to five playoff appearances. Since then, though, Henderson has gone 5-15, and former head coach Othell Robinson departed.
Seasons have come and gone, though, even since their last winning season (2019), a year the Lions went 6-5 and lost to Midlothian Heritage in the bi-district playoffs.
The Lions lost 18 lettermen from last season’s team, but return 22, including 10 starters (four on offense and six on defense).
The four offensive starters are junior running back Jesstin Starling 5-5, 165, left guard Johnathan Bateman 6-2, 355 Sr., wide receiver Macen Jones 5-11, 175 Jr. and junior tight end Jordan Ervin 6-1, 215. Other players to watch will be junior quarterback Vince Howard 6-0, 170, slot receiver LeMarion Coleman 6-0, 175 junior, and Amauri Murphy 5-11, 160 WR.
Starling, nicknamed ‘Meaty’, led the team rushing for 1,042 yards and six touchdowns and also was second on the team in receptions with 16 for 131 yards and a touchdown as a sophomore last year. Ervin had five catches for 159 yards and a touchdown, Jones added seven receptions for 83 yards, while Coleman had two for 78 and a touchdown.
Howard, a backup, who started a couple of district games last season was 26-of-39 passing for 198 yards and two touchdowns.
Six starters return to the multiple defense. They are Coleman OLB, Anthony Newman 5-11, 175 Sr. SS, Kiyun Pellum 6-1, 230 DL Sr., Ervin DE, Trevor Kind 6-0, 220, Sr. LB and Cory Harper 5-9. 160 Jr. CB. Others to keep an eye on will be Logan White 5-10, 170, Sr. LB and Isiah Vasquez 5-11, 200 Jr. DE.
Coleman and Newman each had 49 tackles and a dozen assisted tackles. Coleman had five tackles for loss to go with a sack and an interception and two fumble recoveries. Meanwhile, Newman had four TFL and two sacks.
Pellum followed with 33 tackles, six assists, four TFL, three sacks, Ervin, like Pellum had 33 tackles, as well as 13 assists, three TFL, a sack and an interception.
Kind was credited with 34 tackles and a fumble recovery, while Vasquez led Henderson with eight TFL.
Strengths, according to Baker, are the number of skill players coming back on both sides of the football. “I’m excited about some of those players’ potential and what they’ve showed they’re capable of doing.”
Weaknesses are across the offensive line where Henderson lost four of five starters. “Johnathan (Bateman) is a really good one coming back, but we need to find four to go with him. Some of those options could be Eli and Ryne Malone, Braxton Bennett or Trent Henderson,” Baker continued.
The Lions kickoff the season at home on Aug. 30 against former 9-4A Division I rival Athens, beginning at 7:30 p.m., and a week later entertain Liberty-Eylau, one of the two teams they beat last season, before visiting Jacksonville, a former district opponent as well as the other team the Lions beat last year, a week later at the Tomato Bowl.
Henderson then closes its non-district schedule against Gainesville, a 4A Division II opponent, at a neutral site, Texas A&M-Commerce, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19.
District play begins on Friday, Sept. 27, as the Lions host Palestine. A week later, they travel to Kilgore to meet longtime rival Kilgore on Oct. 4, and then have a district home game against Mabank before visiting Pine Tree in Longview on Oct. 18.
“This is one of the toughest 4A districts in the state,” Baker continued. “Pine Tree was a 5A playoff team last year, that dropped a classification in the latest UIL Re-alignment (earlier this year).
Following an open date on Oct. 25, the Lions host Chapel Hill on Nov. 1 at Lion Stadium and close the regular season at Lindale against the Eagles.
“Chapel Hill and Kilgore are in the top five 4A Division I preseason rankings and Chapel Hill played for the state championship last season,” Baker added.
He’s right. In Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s 4A Division I rankings to start the season, Chapel Hill is second, Kilgore fifth, Lindale 16th and Pine Tree 21st.
“And, then we close against Lindale and coach Chris Cochran, who has one of the better teams in our region year in and year out.”
Nothing easy about any of that.