Henderson out as LHSAA executive director

CROWLEY – Change is in the air at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and it is staring at the top.
On Thursday, after the second closed session involving executive committee members at the LHSAA office in four days, the LHSAA released a statement that said “The LHSAA executive committe and its Executive Director, Kenny Henderson, have mutally agreed that it is in the best interest of the association and Mr. Henderson to sever their relationship.”
On Friday, Henderson resigned.
The news spread rapidly and it garnered mixed reactions from area coaches and officials.
“Not because of the private and public split, which wasn’t good, I don’t think, for the association, but the whole thing (LHSAA) was kind of splintering apart,” said Notre Dame coach Cook. “And it all falls back on the guy at the top.
“When they fire a coach, they always say we want to go in a different direction and I just think, that where we were headed was not a good place and they just decided that it was time to get another leader in there to try and keep it (the organization) from splitting up.”
It was a move that Cook said he saw coming.
“Last summer, or last January maybe it was, he had asked for an extension to his contract and they (executive committee) turned it down; so you knew right then that they weren’t totally behind him at that point,” said Cook. “There wasn’t enough of them (members) that were comfortable enough to approve his extension. That signaled right there that there was some problems.
“There were some signs that you could read into that were leading one to believe that they weren’t behind him like they were in the past.”
Lee Ward Bellard, principal at Church Point High School and a former executive committee member, was surprised with the announcement..
“I had a feeling that something was happening or going to happen, I just wasn’t sure what it was,” said Bellard. “This was a special meeting, it wasn’t a regular one. I don’t know what was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The original plan was to evaluate him before December but they mutally agreed to end it.”
Henderson had drawn criticism for numerous issues under his reign, including the split in the football playoffs and the move of the Top 28 tournament away from the Cajundome.
Another issue involves a lawsuit by Varsity Event Management that dates back to late 2011 when Henderson and the LHSAA hired former LHSAA staffer Rob Owens and Mary Ann Tice, previously of Shreveport Regional Sports Authority, to manage its championship events. The group managed fall 2011 events before the sides parted ways and a breach of contract suit was filed. A court date for that is pending in 2015.
“I think a lot of it is the VEM thing and the Cajundome deal. Kenny is getting the blame for a lot of that and there are a lot that people don’t know about it,” said Bellard. “The people in Lafayette are blaming him and I can see why they are doing that because it (Top 28) was taken away from them. But people don’t know what was discussed when it went to Shreveport-Bossier. They (Shreveport-Bossier) offered a zero-dollar bid and we were paying $50,000 at the Cajundome.
“Will it come back? They will have to work some things out, but it wasn’t all Kenny; he just caught the flack for it, which you will do when you are in that position.”
While many were happy with Henderson’s departure, Bellard had mostly good things to say about the former executive director, who served his last day in the position on Friday.
“I got along well with him. I had no problems with him,” said Bellard. “I was on the hardship committee with him for five years and there were a lot of things he got us to understand about the rules and how to interpret those rules. He did a lot of things good and he got a lot of the state events up north that people didn’t think would work and they did.
“The thing with the Cajundome, I don’t know, there was some bad blood and there’s been bad blood. Maybe a change is going to help that, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The question now, however, is where does the association go from here.
A committee, chaired by Ouachita Parish principal Todd Guice, will immediately begin the search for Henderson’s replacement.
As on now though, with the Prep Football Classic and the winter meetings just around the corner, there was no mention in the news release of whether there will be an interim director or who it will be.
“I think everything is pretty much set up to get us through the fall sports,” said Cook. “The Dome (Prep Classic) and all of that is set and that’s not going to change. There are enough people in there - within the group - that I think it will go fine until they get someone else.
“Tommy Henry was a coach who became the assistant commissioner and then became the commissioner; so my dealings have always been with, the guy who was at the top was a coach,” said Cook.
“I know the principals are the ones that vote, but if you put a principal in there that wasn’t a coach...I guess I’m selfish, but I hope that it’s an athletic guy that has been through the wars and the battles, not that a principal hadn’t gone through that.
“You just have to have someone in there that has the schools and the players; the athletes have to be the number one interest. It can’t be about you or the office that you hold. The rulings have to be in the best interest of the kids that are involved.”