Monrovia's Jay Henderson at the start of a great moment (photos by Duane Barker)
Jay Henderson making a play (photo by Duane Barker)
Jay Henderson makes history with one of his four touchdowns Saturday night. (photo by Duane Barker)
At some point after Monrovia’s 14-12 loss at the Rose Bowl to Santa Barbara in December 1935, a coach or a parent took a player by the shoulders and said: “We’re going to work hard and we’re going to come back and win this thing.”
Nine different times this scene most likely occurred in a M-Town locker room…Finally, Saturday night the statement turned prophetic and the Wildcats became champions. How long has it been since 1935? 75 years. If you go back 75 years from 1935 you land in 1860. The Civil War hasn’t even begun. Coming forward since 1935 there have been 13 different Presidents of the United States. Lee McNeill played for Monrovia before Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King became household names. Before Neil Armstong walked on the moon, before World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. This is how long it has taken for Monrovia to climb this hill.
Seven different head coaches, players like McNeill, Fair Hooker, Keith Lincoln, Obie Graves, Jackie Adams, Robbie Bartlett, Daryl Moore, Akil Harris, Kenny Parry, Adam Gabriel, Seth Perez, Jesse Canada, David Potts, Josh Lowden… hundreds of players came through hoping to be the guy, or at least on the team that broke through.
Saturday night the Wildcats broke through…
…and it turns out, after 75 years of hunting, it was Jay Henderson providence chose to have a night no one will ever forget.
Watching Henderson have a night for the ages a thought played in my head of some far away time. Perhaps in eternity, in a place where Monrovia football players gather to talk about the old days of a physical existence. At a table where all the teams, former coaches and faithful are gathered…I got this image of Henderson sitting at the head of it. A toast is called for, glasses are raised, and someone says “To the night we broke through!”
“To all of us!” Henderson says, “It was all of us!”… but the others standing at a banquet table 75 years long turn and raise their glasses to him.
“No Jay,” they say. “It was you.”
It was just a thought that raced as players and coaches began to cry…Cheesy? Possibly…But only the dense in spirit failed to see the history in the Wildcats win and in a history making performance by Jay Henderson.
And now, Henderson…he belongs to the ages…
joe@midvalleysports.com
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