Dominance continued: SL teams take district titles
October 29, 2013
BREAKING: Coach, girlfriend, 3 others given criminal summons after Destrehan forfeitures
October 30, 2013
Kalen Henderson knew the news wasn’t good.
In the immediate aftermath of a lower leg injury suffered just before halftime of Nicholls State’s September 7 game at Western Michigan, Henderson feared the worst.
Had he torn everything in his ankle? Would he miss the rest of the year? If so, where would he go from here if he had to take a medical red-shirt and what would his future hold as an athlete?
Fortunately, the news wasn’t quite as bad as Henderson had initially feared.
The quarterback did suffer a broken fibula, but with the proper rehab, he wouldn’t have to miss the rest of the season or be forced to take a medical red-shirt. Henderson would miss the Colonels’ next four games, but he returned to play late in the second-half of the team’s 55-41 loss to Stephen F. Austin on October 19.
He got more playing time in Nicholls’ 55-30 loss to McNeese State last Saturday, entering the game in the second quarter and eventually finishing with 136 yards and two touchdown passes on 8-of-20 attempts and 39 yards rushing on four carries.
The injury seemed particularly bad at first, but once Henderson took a step back from the initial shockwaves and had time to process his diagnosis from doctors, he began to see things more clearly.
“Everybody started to calm me down in the doctor’s room and was telling me that all I had was a broken fibula and a really bad ankle sprain, and that I’d be back within four to six weeks,” Henderson recalled. “But it took a lot to calm me down. I was just in there panicking.”
Nicholls coach Charlie Stubbs said he was pleased with how Henderson responded after the early season setback, not just physically but mentally.
Henderson maintained good spirits throughout his rehab and remained involved with the team all throughout the injury process.
“He’s a quick healer,” Stubbs said. “The biggest thing I like is his attitude. He was always around. We traveled him to everything, so he’d been in the meetings with me. He never took time off. He was always into what we were doing game-plan-wise, so mentally, it wasn’t hard to get him back into that part of it.”
Indeed, Henderson’s work ethic has never been called into question.
A typical day during his rehab was being up by 7 a.m. and going into the training room for two hours at a time. Instead of taking in film on Nicholls’ opponent that week, he’d take in ice or get work done to his leg in hopes of speeding up his recovery time.
It was the first time Henderson had ever suffered an injury with any severity in the middle of a game or season, and one of the biggest challenges, he said, was having to hold himself back once he was cleared to return to practice.
“I was trying to get myself back on the field (during Northwestern State week), but I just wasn’t physically ready to go,” Henderson said. “My ankle was still giving me problems and sometimes I still had soreness in my legs. I had to pull myself out of a few drills and see where I was at physically.”
To that end, Henderson continues to proceed with caution. He may not be at 100 percent with his rushing ability for a while longer, and that’s a concern to a mobile athlete who is used to scrambling and making plays with his feet.
But all in all, he’s happy to be back on the playing field, even if not 100 percent.
“It’s always going to be a concern in my mind that I can’t move as well as I want to move, or the way I was before the injury,” Henderson said. “But I think I’m about 95 percent right now, maybe a little less. But as long as I can just avoid the rush and get down and protect myself, I think I’ll be alright.”
With a healthy Henderson back in the mix at quarterback, Nicholls could have as many as three potential quarterbacks to rely on. Henderson split time with emerging star Tuskani Figaro in the team’s loss to McNeese over the weekend, and Stubbs plans to continue working both quarterbacks into the mix during the remainder of the season.
But he’ll continue to keep a close eye on Henderson’s recovery, no matter how well it seems to be progressing at the moment.
“You have to protect (players) from themselves because I see things he might not see,” said Stubbs. “I see sometimes when he’s not able to plant that foot into the ground or make that cut. All the things look pretty good in practice, but when people start really buzzing around him in a game, then we’ll see.”
Nicholls quarterback Kalen Henderson breaks tackles during the Colonels’ season opener against Oregon. The quarterback is back on the field for Nicholls after breaking his leg in the second game of the season against Western Michigan. Colonels coach Charlie Stubbs said Henderson will share reps with Tuskani Figaro the rest of the year.
