May 3rd, 2010
Fenwick Coach Lives Legacy
Coaching icon succumbs to cancer, but leaves legacy behind
From The Boston Globe:
Former Bishop Fenwick softball coach Ed Henry passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 61
The 1967 Fenwick graduate led the Crusaders to eight state titles, including one in 1985 and seven in succession beginning in 1990. Woburn ended the streak on June 12, 1997, with a 1-0 win in 10 innings in the North Sectional semifinals.
Henry coached at Fenwick from 1983 to 1997 and had 15 Catholic Central League championships. Henry’s overall record at Fenwick was 332-29 and he was the Globe’s Coach of the Year three times.
In 2002, Henry was inducted into the Bishop Fenwick Hall of Fame.
Henry was 66-10 in postseason play, combining his records at Shawsheen and Fenwick. His daughter, Heather, played on the 1985 team. Another daughter, Rachel, was the assistant to St. Mary’s coach (and former Fenwick shortstop) Colleen Parker Newbury last year when St. Mary’s won the state tournament.
“He was my mentor,’’ said Concord-Carlisle coach Lisa McGloin, who played under Henry as a catcher from 1985 to 1988, before playing at the University of North Carolina for four years. She also coached with him from 1990 to 1997 at Fenwick and for half of the 1998 season at Shawsheen.
“He was a teacher first and a coach second, and I don’t mean a school teacher,’’ McGloin said. “He was a teacher of life and all that was much more important than the winning or losing.’’
McGloin called Henry a “rule follower,’’ explaining that Henry was the kind of coach who would bench his own family members if they didn’t agree with him or they weren’t good enough to be playing. But he was fair and sincere.
“He would make every person who played for him feel important,’’ she said. “Doesn’t matter if you were a starting pitcher or a pinch runner off the bench . . . He took everyone’s effort and everyone practicing hard to be good and he appreciated everybody.’’
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