Denny McHenry is back in a head coaching job at Republic.
McHenry, who coached boys basketball at Republic in the early 2000s, was hired as the Lady Tigers’ head softball coach after spending last season as an assistant under Lee Dishman. Dishman retired after leading Republic to the Class 5 state quarterfinals.
Before coming to Republic as an assistant, McHenry spent 14 years at Logan-Rogersville, where he coached both girls basketball and softball. He stepped away from coaching three years ago.
It didn’t stick. He has been serving as a boys basketball assistant at Kickapoo under his son, Mitch, and he joined Republic as a softball assistant last fall after some recruitment by Dishman. He’s ready to lead a program again.
“After being out of it for three years, I couldn’t get the coaching quite out of my system,” McHenry said. “I always wanted to do it again, but I didn’t want to travel very far to do it.”
When Dishman brought him on staff last season, McHenry found familiar faces. “Some of the families that have girls playing were players for me whenever I was coaching basketball here a few years back,” McHenry said. “It just felt really comfortable.”
McHenry said he didn’t know Dishman was planning to retire when he took the assistant job and didn’t seriously consider the head coaching position until late in the season.
Dishman handed McHenry the hitting program, and the results showed late. Republic peaked at the right time on its way to the quarterfinals.
“Lee was so good to me. He turned me loose with all the hitting,” McHenry said. “By the end of the year we were swinging the bat good and playing good. We just hit our stride at the right time.”
McHenry takes over a program with a long winning tradition. Mike Thorne led Republic to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2008 and 2009. Dishman kept the standard. McHenry said that culture of expectation is something he understands.
“In a program like Republic, as it was at Rogersville with me… our expectations are when we walk on the field, we expect to be successful. You’ve got to hate to lose more than you love to win.”
Asked what his teams look like when he’s the head coach, McHenry didn’t hesitate.
“I think they’re gonna work really, really hard. I think they enjoy what they do,” he said. “I think that’s really the key to it.”
He acknowledged he’s changed some over the years. Former players who come to watch his games tell him he’s mellowed. He agreed. But the competitive core is the same, and he said his approach will be similar to Dishman’s.
“I think Lee and I are very, very much similar in how we do things,” McHenry said. “He might have a little more bark, might have a little more bite than I have. I love to laugh and joke with the girls. But … we have a job to do every day that we show up for practice. Your job is to show up and give me great effort.”
Working under Dishman last season gave McHenry a window into how the retiring coach connected with his players away from the public eye.
“He was so different than what I expected in how he loved on these girls,” McHenry said. “That made me feel really, really good about being his assistant coach and, in the end, taking over the program.”
The Lady Tigers graduated eight seniors from the quarterfinal team, but McHenry said he’s lost large senior classes before and isn’t fazed. Five or six returners played significant time, and there could be some position shuffling. He’s confident in the pitching and catching, and he said what excites him the most is keeping Republic softball on top despite those graduations.
McHenry said how the team handles adversity will define the season. He pointed to last year’s tournament losses against unfamiliar out-of-state teams as an example of the kind of setback every team faces over a long schedule.
“It’s important to understand how you’re going to get back on track, because you’re going to have tough times,” he said. “The one- and two-run losses are sometimes tougher … than getting beat by ten runs, because … it’s the ones that you lose by a run or two that you’re going, as a coach … ‘I could have done this different.'”
The key, he said, is turning those moments into lessons.
“How can we make a change the next time that same situation, or some situation that’s similar to that, comes up?” McHenry said. “How can we have a different outcome?”
McHenry said he also plans to spend time with Republic’s middle school program to get to know the younger players coming up — something he hasn’t had a chance to do yet.
“I do not know any of our young girls from our middle school program,” he said. “I plan on being at most of those practices and being right in there and helping coach them, so when the day comes … it’s much more familiar and easier for me.”
