Advertisement

Back home at Hampton, new athletic director Anthony Henderson is excited for future of Pirates athletics

michael sauls, the virginian-pilot
·4 min read

The Hampton University men’s basketball team’s win over Monmouth last week capped off what had been a whirlwind day for Anthony Henderson.

The school’s new athletic director was officially introduced during a press conference that morning. He then spent the day meeting with people before being honored at halftime of the game.

After the game concluded, Henderson finally got to take a breather and struggled to put into words what it meant to be back at Hampton.

“You know you don’t get a chance in this business a lot of times to even be close to home,” Henderson said. “To come back to a school that did so much for me — I grew up here, got here at 18, and left at 22 and was a totally different person. To be able to come back and provide those same opportunities to the young people that I had — hopefully better opportunities, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Henderson was named Hampton’s new athletic director on Feb. 8 and replaced Eugene Marshall Jr., who left after eight years for Binghamton University.

Accepting the job was an easy decision for Henderson, who returns home to Hampton where he received his undergraduate degree and was a defensive back for the Pirates’ football team.

“The president actually reached out in December to gauge my interest,” Henderson said. “I told him of course, I mean, why wouldn’t I be?”

Henderson brings more than 20 years of experience in athletics administration with him back to Hampton. He was most recently the deputy director of athletics at Yale but has also spent time at William & Mary, Old Dominion, Akron and VCU.

All these stops at the various levels of collegiate athletics have helped him learn lessons that he said he plans to use during his tenure with Hampton.

“I’ve been fortunate to be at a lot of different institutions at a lot of different levels. … I mean, there’s no not much I haven’t seen,” Henderson said. “So the biggest thing now is trying to figure out how to take all of those experiences, and tell them to Hampton — because every institution is different. So trying to figure out what works best here, but I think I can figure out how to take a few tools out of the toolbox and use them here.”

During his first few months as athletic director, Henderson said he plans to go on a “listening tour,” where he’ll meet with student-athletes, faculty, staff and alumni.

“I think it’s important to get to know your people,” Henderson said. “The biggest thing is listening, getting out into the community, meeting community leaders, and figuring out how we can actually become the Peninsula’s Division I institution. Football, basketball, anytime you want to see a Division I game, or come to watch any college program, why not Hampton?”

As for any major project for the athletic department, you won’t see those just yet. Henderson said the athletic department will compose a master strategy plan, one that includes possible facility upgrades, once the university is done doing the same.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to go out and sell things to people, but we don’t really have a full picture of what we need to sell,” Henderson said. “I don’t want to be haphazard, just adding stuff. I want it to actually make sense. Whether it’s a practice facility for basketball, whether it’s doing upgrades to our softball facility, or hitting facility. There are a lot of things that we need here. So I think putting that cohesive, comprehensive plan together, will help us plan and start to pick things off that we need to do.”

The efforts of reaching out to people in the community have already begun for Henderson, and he said Hampton is going to need everyone.

“We need resources to actually do the things that we want to do,” Henderson said. “With resources come people — we need people’s help. We need them to buy tickets, we need them to contribute philanthropically. We need them to contribute their time, time, talent, and treasure — it’s not always about dollars.”

Henderson said he heard from several former teammates after he got the job, joking that his college roommate was right there with him during his introductory press conference.

But the early feedback hasn’t been limited to just former athletes — something Henderson is taking as a good sign.

“I’ve had so many people reach out that said, they’re now reconnected to Hampton just because I’m here,” Henderson said. “We talked about generating resources, they’re asking how can I help. So the more of those phone calls I can get, the better. It’s been huge, just getting folks reconnected, that haven’t been connected to the university just by me just being, not really doing anything. So hopefully that will continue.”

Michael Sauls, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com | Twitter @mcsauls