STARKVILLE — Even eight years removed, Greg Dombrowski vividly recalls learning from Gary Henderson.
A pitcher at the University of Kentucky from 2005-08, Dombrowski remembers interacting with pitching coach Henderson on a daily basis. Whether it was bullpen sessions or an ordinary day at practice, Dombrowski got a sense of what kind of coach and person Henderson was.
To this day, it still amazes him.
“He just has a way of kind of making you feel comfortable and confident, but challenging you at the same time,” Dombrowski said.
Henderson, who resigned as head coach from Kentucky June 1, was hired by Mississippi State baseball coach John Cohen to be the new Bulldog pitching coach last week. Henderson served four seasons (2004-08) as Cohen’s pitching coach at Kentucky. Henderson takes over for Wes Johnson who took the same position at Arkansas. Former MSU assistant Nick Mingione was hired to replace Henderson.
In his four seasons with the Wildcats, Dombrowski was 23-5 with a 3.86 ERA in 282 innings. The right-hander went 10-2 with a 2.86 ERA as a sophomore in 2006, helping the Wildcats win the Southeastern Conference championship.
Playing at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York, Dombrowski came to Kentucky and immediately began to develop under the direction of Henderson. Henderson taught his pitchers how to attack hitters.
“He really helps you understand what mental toughness is and what mental discipline is,” Dombrowski said. “He does a great job of instilling confidence in his pitchers. He just challenged us every day in practice to improve our mental makeup and he challenged our competitiveness.”
Dombrowski said it was easy for pitchers to learn from Henderson because he had a persona and attitude that inspired them.
“Just being around him and seeing the way he handles things, you can just tell he’s extremely confident in what he does and what he’s saying,” Dombrowski said. “It rubs off on you and brings a certain confidence.”
Henderson took over for Cohen at Kentucky when Cohen left for his alma mater in 2009. He compiled a 258-199 overall record at Kentucky. The 28-year coach served as an assistant at California State University at Fullerton (1989), Riverside (Calif.) City College (1990), Chapman (Calif.) University (1991-92), Pepperdine (1994), Florida (1995-98) and Oregon State (1999-2002). Henderson began his coaching career as the junior varsity coach at his alma mater San Diego State in 1988. He was the head coach at Chapman in 1993.
He played one season at Linfield (Ore.) College (1980) before transferring to San Diego State (1982-84). As a pitcher, he had a combined record of 19-5 at both schools.
Dombrowski feels like the MSU pitchers will immediately buy into what Henderson teaches, mainly because of Henderson’s flexibility.
“The one thing that always really amazed me with coach Henderson was his ability to kind of relate to people with different personalities,” Dombrowski said. “One molding doesn’t fit everybody, you’ve got to be able to develop each individual and understand their personality and that’s one thing that just amazes me with him.”
Henderson will have a lot to work with at MSU. The Bulldogs return 13 pitchers from this past season’s team, which lost to Arizona in the Starkville Super Regional. The recruiting class features five incoming freshmen pitchers and two junior college pitchers.
Dombrowski, who was under the direction of Cohen, Henderson and Mingione for two seasons (2006-07) at Kentucky, will begin his second season as the head coach at Lely High School in Naples, Florida, this coming spring. He is inspired by Henderson and Cohen and is taking lessons learned from them to build up the Trojan program.
“I’m taking a lot of what they taught me in life and baseball and try to apply to my own life and me trying to build a program,” Dombrowski said, who is also a preacher.
He played in the Cincinnati Reds minor league organization for two seasons, but a torn rotator cuff and a labrum injury cut his professional career short.
Dombrowski was sad to hear Cohen left Kentucky, but was happy Henderson got a promotion. He has talked to Cohen only a couple of times in the past eight years, but is in close contact with Henderson, talking to him every couple of months. It was another bittersweet moment when Mingione was hired to replace Henderson, but he was not surprised to hear Cohen hired Henderson.
Although Dombrowski came to respect Henderson as a coach, his attitude towards others really set him apart in Dombrowski’s mind.
“He’s a tremendous person, he cares about other people and he cares about their development in life,” Dombrowski said. “It goes much more than just baseball with him. He’s a great coach, he’s passionate, he’s a winner and he’s just got a great competitive spirit, which I think really makes him the coach he is.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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