THE SAM HENSON STORY

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When it comes to placekicking, consistency is key. At least it is for Sam Henson.

Though he didn’t pick up the sport of football until just prior to the beginning of his junior year at Owatonna High School, Henson has since embraced the fundamentals of his position and progressively installed a sound pre-kick routine. Every movement prior to striking the ball has been meticulously calculated, his entire approach split into a series of functional steps, each one purposefully integrated into the overall sequence.

Henson is a specialist, after all, and dependability is paramount, especially playing a position that is often overlooked and underrated. College football can also be a ruthless business, and failing to remain consistent between the lines often leads to a bleak existence on the bench.

But that exactly why Henson has a routine. That’s why his footwork remains the same and why he has learned to control his breathing throughout the entire process. It’s why he’s always exploring new ways to clear his mind and control his emotions, regardless of the outcome.

“It’s all mental,” he said. “It’s all about remaining steady with your thoughts. Make or miss, you have to remain at the same level.”

Sure, it sounds good, but Henson isn’t just lauding the benefits of remaining mentally strong because he feels like that’s right thing to say.

No, the crutch he uses to steady himself and anchor his 6-foot-2, 185-pound frame is a stark reminder of just how quickly things can change. It’s proof that you can go from emerging as one of the top young kickers at the NCAA Division II level and out-dueling some of the best players at his position in all of college football, to requiring assistance from two people just to use the restroom. Bleak as it may be, this has been Henson’s reality over the last 16 months, the final consequence of attempting to play through a growing discomfort for more than two months that was eventually diagnosed as a complete tear of the labrum in his right hip.

Shortly after the final game of his sophomore season at Concordia University in St. Paul, Henson had received two additional consultations from specialists at two different institutions, and both came to the same conclusion as his original doctor: Surgery was the best option moving forward if he ever planned on playing again. Henson hadn’t even considered ending his career, so to him it was the only option.

After a blizzard postponed his original appointment by almost three weeks, Henson finally went under the knife on March 9 and endured an arthroscopic procedure at Summit Orthopedic in the Twin Cities. He’s not expected to make a full recovery until at least the middle of October and has elected to take advantage of the NCAA’s a one-time medical redshirt rule that will prevent him from taking the field for entire 2023 season.

“I’ve come to terms with that,” Henson said about missing the upcoming season. “It’s obviously going to be tough to go from playing two years in a row as a starter to basically having a gap year and then having two more years of eligibility after that.”

In the immediate aftermath of the operation, Henson could barely move an inch without experiencing debilitating pain and his mobility was severely hampered by a cumbersome cast that wrapped tightly around his waist and stretched halfway down his leg. For the first week, he was essentially bedridden. This gave him plenty of time to reflect on what had been a roller-coaster career up to that point. Suffering a severe injury was obviously never a part of his ultimate plan, but it had now engulfed his immediate reality.

“I had my four-year goals written down and everything I wanted to accomplish in those years,” Henson said on April 10, almost exactly a month removed from surgery. “And now I have to pump the breaks a little bit. I’ve had to remind myself that my plan might be this, but reality is different.”

‘THE KICKER FROM NOWHERE’

Henson’s college career got off to a quick start. In fact, his second official field goal attempt sailed over the crossbar from 48 yards out and remains tied for his career-long . He went on to drill 10 of 13 field goals, blast 10 touchbacks and finish a perfect 18-for-18 on extra points during his first season with the Golden Bears.

Buoyed by his superb rookie campaign and fresh off being pegged as one of the top 15 kickers in all of Division II according to the CFP Network, the momentum Henson had accumulated since the he stepped on campus for the first time in the late summer of 2021 carried deep into the offseason and ultimately reached its pinnacle at an elite college kicking clinic in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in late-July of 2022.

Taking the 1,000-mile trek south with his father Garrett — a former all-conference punter at Division I New Mexico State — Henson distinctly remembers approaching the registration desk and glancing at a row of nametags indicating some of the kickers that would be attending the event.

“I look at these nametags and think to myself: ‘I know that name, he’s the punter at Oklahoma. And that’s the kicker from Arkansas. And then I saw guys from places like Georgia, Oregon and Alabama,” Henson said. “I remember talking with my position coach at Concordia before I left and he told me I was probably going to be a bit of a fanboy right away, and that’s only natural. I mean, when I get home after our games, these are the guys that are playing on national TV. They’re the ones playing on ESPN and winning national championships.”

According to Henson, he was one of “maybe three” D-II kickers at the event and admitted he probably tried too hard to impress his peers when he first stepped onto the field.  

The nerves, though, didn’t last long.

“I remember looking over at my dad and he kind of gave me a little thumbs up,” Henson said. “I was like ‘Alright, let’s do this.’ Once the first ball got kicked, I realized we are all just kickers. We all started at the same place, and we all have the same type of routines. We are just kicking a football here.”

The event commenced with a camp-wide field goal competition and Henson out-dueled a number of high-level D-I kickers and was eventually eliminated at 61 yards by an All-American from national powerhouse Alabama.

As the mid-summer Tennessee air thickened and temperatures rose into the mid-90s, Henson’s leg was fully-lubricated by the time he found his place amongst the procession of campers stretching across the field prior to the kickoff portion of the competition in the afternoon of the first day. Prior to breaking into smaller pods, each player was asked to introduce themselves in front of the entire group. Name and school, all the way down the line.

Ole Miss, Penn State, Michigan, Alabama, Oregon, Georgia…Concordia-St. Paul?

“After I introduced myself, the kid from Georgia looks at me and was like ‘where the hell is that?’” Henson recalled with a wide grin. “I had talked to the kicker from Alabama before that and told him where I was from and you could tell he had no idea where Concordia was, so I knew that was coming.

“I become known as ‘The Kicker From Nowhere.”

Henson once again rose to the occasion and ultimately finished in the top 15 of the kickoff contest and continued to showcase his skills in front of a host of influential players, coaches and instructors from all over the country throughout the next four days at the National Elite Camp put on by Kohl’s Kicking.

“It was one of those things where I found myself looking around and taking in the moment,” Henson said. “I’m here with all these guys I’ve watched on TV for years, and them it’s me.”

Before long, Henson was back in Minnesota, and back on the field in St. Paul for Concordia’s preseason camp leading into the fall of 2022. After a relatively uneventful opening 10 days or so, Henson trotted onto the field at the sound of the horn indicating the start of special teams session in the middle of what was an otherwise arbitrary early-week practice.

When it came time to thump a few balls through the uprights, Henson lined up behind his holder like he always did, approached the ball with the same rhythm, swung his leg backwards using the trajectory and struck the ball with the same amount of force.

For Henson, it was a completely ordinary attempt. That is, until it wasn’t.

“I knew something was wrong right away,” Henson said of the sudden jolt of pain he experienced during the fateful late-August field goal attempt. “I was like ‘oh boy, that’s not supposed to hurt.’ I went and saw our trainers that day and they thought I maybe strained my groin. They wanted to see how everything went before making an official diagnosis and I sat out about a week of practice.”

Henson said he started to feel a little better during the five days he sat out just prior to the Bears’ season-opening game on Sept. 1, but then he started experiencing what he called random “pops” and “clicks” emanating from his hip. Somehow, though, he mustered the strength to forge ahead and didn’t miss a game all season.  If the discomfort was too harsh to overcome by sheer willpower alone, he would dull it with various over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Hot packs, ice baths and cooling gels became a part of his new daily regimen, but only provided fleeting relief.

By the time the final quarter of the season rolled around in late-October, he was regularly limping off the field and clearly wasn’t himself, not even close. After missing his final five field goals of the season, Henson was eager to put the previous two months behind him and finally get some answers.

Whatever was ailing him, it clearly hindered his on-field production — his field goal percentage dropped by more than 50% from his freshman season — and set up a meeting with the C-SP training staff right away.  

“They wanted to see how things looked after Thanksgiving break,” Henson said. “I waited and eventually came back after break and it was the same symptoms, nothing had changed. They send me over to Summit Orthopedics and the doctor conducted maybe two tests and the was like: ‘Yeah, we are going to do some x-rays and get you an MRI right away.’”

Henson soon learned his of his official diagnosis — receiving the call on Christmas Day — and finally had an answer for the sharp pain that had plagued him for the previous three months. Essentially, he had been playing without any cartilage between the portion of the femur that connects into his hip socket, meaning the bones were rubbing together with no “padding” in between. That explained where the “clicks” and “pops” were coming from and revealed in graphic detail exactly why the pain was so acute. And so sharp.

“Yeah, it almost makes it hurt even worse when I think about it,” Henson said. “Basically, I was told that the ball of my right hip had a little extra bone coming off it and the bones had been rubbing together for a long time. Obviously, I knew that wasn’t good.”

Moving forward, Henson will continue rehabbing at Owatonna Sports and Physical Therapy under the guidance of Greg Lenz with the goal of beginning football-related activities in mid-September 2023.

From there, he’ll start the process of establishing his routine all over again, meticulously calculating every movement prior to striking the ball, refining his approach and breaking down the entire process into a series of smaller steps. Assuming he suits up for Week 1 of the 2024 season, it will have been more than 500 days since the last time he took the field.

“It’s definitely made me think about a lot of things and opened my mind,” Henson said. “I could just as easily say ‘I’m done with football.’ But that’s me. I’m a competitor, and I know I can get back to where I was as a freshman. I still have two years of my college career ahead of me. I like this lifestyle and I know how fortunate I am to be in this position. And that’s one of the things I’ve brought up with my brother (Drew). He’s going to kick at UM-D next year and I’ve told him: ‘You can be as good technically sound as you want, but nothing matters unless you believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, they’ll bring someone else in who does.’”

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