As a former track athlete under Coach Henry, I figured I would drop in my 2 cents.
First of all you guys hit a big point right on the head. Recruiting and the distribution of scholarship money are huge reasons for Henry's success. His handling of scholarship money is VERY businesslike. If you come here on scholarship and aren't performing to the level that he expects, he won't hesitate to reduce, or remove your scholarship altogether and use it to bring in talent that WILL perform. This isn't common among other coaches. Many will keep their "promise" of a scholarship even if the athlete is underperforming. It is also very difficult if not almost impossible to walk-on here and "earn" a scholarship. If an athlete walks on and begins to outperform expectations, good for them, but they're already here. No need to offer them money. Henry will use the money he would have offered to go bring in more NEW talent, whereas many other coaches would feel pressured to reward the performance of exceptional walk-ons.
Just like in business, you want access to the least expensive high-quality components you can get to build your overall product.
Herein lies what I believe Henry's biggest key to success. He actually plays more of a CEO role in the program than an elite coach. Henry does the shaking hands and kissing babies and determines the overall direction of the program, while Coaches Anderson, VanHottegem, DeLaGarza, and Waters do more of the heavy lifting when it comes to the day to day coaching of technique and overall training. Don't get me wrong. Henry is involved in the coaching too, but his success is more derived from his business sense than his knowledge of angles, efficiencies, energy, diet, rest, etc.
The second major reason for Henry's success in my opinion is how his coaching staff is structured. Most other programs in the NCAA have separate Men's and Women's coaching staffs. What Henry does is have only one staff, and pay the coaches significantly more than anywhere else. This allows him to surround himself with the best assistants in the nation and pay them well enough to keep them. Each coach coaches both teams in specific event groups, ie: Jumps, Sprints, Throws, Distance, etc. The men's and women's teams practice together as a team and travel as a team. tu actually separates their teams. They don't practice together and often they don't even go to the same meets together unless it is a conference, regional, or national championship meet.
A side benefit of this setup is a more tight knit group where everyone holds the others accountable. As an example, when the girls sprint relay lines up to run, the guys are almost equally as nervous and supportive as they are for their own relay team gets ready to compete. They see each other as one big team as opposed to two separate programs. It's a bond that not a lot of programs have. Do you think the men's Aggie basketball team cares or even knows what the women's basketball team is doing? Probably not. I'm sure they are friends, but they most likely don't see each other as teammates.
Sorry to ramble, but I felt like that is another positive way that sets Henry's program apart from many others.
Hope I gave an idea of how the program really works and where I saw Henry's strengths being and how it effects the overall success of the program as a whole.
[This message has been edited by aggievaulter07 (edited 7/2/2010 10:27a).]
