Football Player of Week Story: Zoinks! 'Scooby' snacks on Woodbridge record book
by WoodbridgeFootball.com / MyCentralJersey.com / NJ.com on 10/11/16
Keshaun “Scooby” Henry received limited touches during
practices leading up to last weekend’s game against crosstown rival J.F.
Kennedy.
“I limited the amount of touches he got so when he did get the ball he was running angry,” Woodbridge High School football coach Kevin Coleman said. “It kind of translated into the game. I wanted him to be hungry.”
The motivation worked as Henry feasted on the opposing defense for single-game school records of six touchdowns, 40 points and four receiving touchdowns in a 52-20 victory.
“It means a lot to me to be in the record books,” Henry, the Home News Tribune’s Football Player of the Week, said of setting new standards for a high school with a storied 93-year football tradition.
Against the Mustangs, Henry totaled 233 all-purpose yards, 19 more than he amassed rushing and receiving in Woodbridge’s four previous games combined.
I told him before the game, it’s time for our playmakers to make some plays,” said Coleman, whose Barrons scored 14 more points against J.F. Kennedy than they did in their four previous games combined.“(After the game) I just told him that’s something I’ve been waiting for him to do for quite some time. I think he has the ability to put those type of performances together.”
Henry, who had just nine touches against J.F. Kennedy, added a rushing touchdown and a kickoff return for a score to his four receiving touchdowns.
He had a punt return for a touchdown and a touchdown pass for a score – Henry played running back, slot back and lined up in Wildcat formation – nullified because of penalties.
As good as Henry’s on-field performance was, however, Woodbridge High School Principal Glenn Lottmann said the senior captain is an even better person than he is a football player.
“No one can doubt his athletic ability,” Lottmann said. “But in my opinion, his athletic ability is the least impressive of his traits. He is friendly, respectful, smart and he’s so humble. If you just met ‘Scooby’ in the hallway, you wouldn’t know he’s one of the best athletes in our school. I hope to God my son grows up to be a gentleman like ‘Scooby.’ That’s the kind of kid he is. You can’t help but smile when you see him. He’s going to go far in life.”
In a role that is often reserved almost exclusively for upperclassmen, Henry has served since his sophomore year in the Woodbridge Township Public Schools’ STARS (Students Traveling A Road To Success) program, a partnership between the high school and Fords Middle School in which a high school student mentors a middle school student.
“That’s uncommon for a sophomore to do,” Lottmann said, noting Henry “stood out from the day (he entered high school) and we got him (as a STARS mentor).”
Henry is known affectionately on and off campus simply as “Scooby,” a nickname his mother gave him because he loved watching Scooby-Doo cartoons as a youth.
“I guess it stuck,” Henry said of his moniker. “All throughout my whole life – teachers, principals, everybody – just called me Scooby.”
If the Barrons are to turn their season around, Henry and several other gifted skill position players including incumbent Greater Middlesex Conference receiving leader Quaasim Glover (46 catches in 2015), quarterback Donovan Tabon and running back Da’avian Ellington will have to continue their prowess behind a steadily improving offensive line.
Woodbridge, ranked No. 9 in the Home News Tribune Top 10 with a deceptive 2-3 record, lost two games – 7-6 to Manasquan and 15-12 to South Plainfield – by a total of four points. The team’s other setback was 28-6 to undefeated St. Joseph, which led by just eight points at halftime.
“We were struggling as far as the offense was concerned,” Coleman said. “We just weren’t able to put things together. We didn’t do anything different in practice (before the J.F. Kennedy game). We just practiced hard and were holding each other accountable on offense.”
Coleman said he knew during the early stages of last weekend’s game that Friday night was going to belong to Henry, who the coaching staff utilized all over the field to ensure the ball would end up in its star player’s hands.
“We’ve got to get him the ball,” Coleman said he remembers telling his assistants, “because he’s going to break out at any moment.”
Henry’s six touchdowns against J.F. Kennedy shattered a 61-year old record which the late Lee Roy Alexander previously set in a game against New Brunswick on Nov. 12, 1955.
Tabon tied the single-game school record of five touchdown passes (including one to Glover), which Kyle Anderson set in an Oct. 22, 2011 game against Monroe. Tabon completed 9 of 11 passes for 261 yards.
The 52 points Woodbridge registered fell two shy of the single-game school mark the Barrons set in a Nov. 4, 1961 victory over Carteret.
What won’t ever show up in the record books is Henry’s personality, the trait that distinguishes him from his peers.
“Scooby
is a great kid,” Coleman said. “As soon as I met him as a freshman, he
was always honorable and well-mannered. He’s a wonderful kid. Inside the
building, he’s respected highly by his teachers and his classmates.”
