Henderson, Staff Sign New Deals with UK
UK baseball coach Gary Henderson, who at times wondered about his future in Lexington, has a new contract.
For directing the Wildcats to a school-record 45 wins this season, Henderson has been rewarded with a new five-year contract.
“I want to begin by thanking Mitch, Dr. Capilouto and Marc Hill for their overall commitment to our baseball program and for helping us establish Kentucky baseball as one of the nation’s elite,” Henderson said. “We have had some exciting moments during my nine years at UK and we still have a lot of things that we want to accomplish.
“I also want to thank our players and their families. They all bought in. We have a group of kids that have tremendous pride in the program, they like each other and they like to play. The complete and total absence of selfishness that our club demonstrated this past season will be vitally important to maintain as we move forward. We have great kids with supportive families and it is my responsibility, along with my staff, to make sure they clearly understand Kentucky baseball will not be sneaking up on anybody in 2013.”
UK baseball assistant coaches Brad Bohannon and Brian Green have also been inked to new contracts. Bohannon serves as UK’s recruiting coordinator and Green functions as the offensive coordinator and hitting coach.
“It was very important to me that we were able to keep Brad Bohannon, Brian Green and Keith Vorhoff on my staff,” Henderson said. “My three assistants have tremendous passion, energy, intelligence and work ethic. The continuity of our staff has been a program strength and I appreciate Mitch’s efforts to help with that continuity.
“I want to thank the Big Blue Nation,” Henderson said. “Our fans came out and supported us in a big way this spring. We are going to do everything possible to give them another exciting, winning team to make it easy for them to continue coming out to the ballpark.”
Henderson was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after pacing the Wildcats to a record 45-win season in 2012, including the best finishes in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments in program history. UK finished third in the SEC regular season and set school records by leading the conference for eight of 10 weeks and winning seven of its conference weekend series.
The Wildcats were ranked No. 1 for three weeks during the season and finished the campaign ranked for 13 consecutive weeks. Following the season, Kentucky had a school-record nine players selected in the 2012 MLB Draft, the second most in the nation and the most in the SEC, and the 2013 roster has sent an NCAA-leading eight players to the prestigious Cape Cod League.
Henderson has been at the core of the UK baseball surge onto the national scene since claiming the 2006 SEC Championship after a last-place finish in 2005. As the associate head coach, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator from 2004-08, Henderson guided the UK pitching staff to some of its best seasons in school annals and annually brought in highly ranked recruiting classes.
After taking over as head coach in 2009, Henderson has totaled a 129-99 (.565) record, the second-best four-year coaching record in UK history.
“Gary Henderson is a good example of the type of coach we want to lead our athletics programs at Kentucky and he and his staff are very deserving of new contracts,” Barnhart said. “He has helped build the program from the moment he arrived in Lexington and it was thrilling watching his team complete a historic campaign in 2012. We are convinced that the success our baseball program achieved last spring is just the beginning and it is an exciting time to be a UK baseball fan.”
