Henry finds new home in Minot

When Jessie Henry’s softball career ends, the Westman Magic are poised to have a great young coach fall into their lap.

The 20-year-old Virden softball player, who began her career at Minnesota State University Moorhead but transferred closer to home to Minot State University last summer, is currently helping out with the under-15 Magic as an assistant coach.

“I love it,” said Henry, who is also working at a daycare in Virden. “I think coaching is my calling. When I graduate from softball and my career is ‘over,’ I could never leave this sport and I think coaching is where I’m meant to be.

“We’re all put on this planet for a reason and I’m meant to help people and teach them and share my knowledge. I love the girls, they’re so awesome and you can tell they look up to me so much, and it’s a privilege and an honour to be one of their assistant coaches.”

Henry won five provincial championships with the Magic and a western Canadian championship in 2023, and competed twice at nationals, and once even at American nationals with the South Dakota Renegades out of Sioux Falls, S.D.

LIFE AS A DRAGON

After high school, she moved down to Moorhead, Minn., which is 600 kilometres from Virden, to join the Minnesota State-Moorhead Dragons. The community of 44,000 is the twin city of Fargo, N.D.

Henry, whose parents are parents Christy and Steven, quickly realized she missed her mom’s cooking and all the familiar elements of life in Virden.

She also had to adjust to a hectic new schedule.

“The routine was completely different,” Henry said. “High school routine is so much different than college routine, especially as a student athlete. There is honestly a lot more you have to worry about. You have to worry about going to bed super early for morning lift, and also getting your homework done on time.

“I found there were due dates every day, compared to high school here there was probably due dates every two weeks. That was an adjustment.

“And definitely not seeing my family every day and doing the little things like going to the gym in the small town.”

Fortunately, she’s always managed her time well: In high school she liked to have her assignments in days early, and she would spend a couple of weeks studying for every test.

She had a lot of success on the field as well at MSUM, which plays Division II in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which has 16 teams based in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.

The five-foot-five, Henry was recruited by Mike Armitage, but he left for Division I school Valparaiso University before she arrived. As a result, the new coach, Vanessa Kellems, essentially held a mini camp to figure out where everybody fit.

Henry, who prides herself on her versatility despite usually playing at second base, landed in left field.

“Normally, especially in the NCAA, freshmen never see the field,” Henry said. “I got into a lot of games. I was a starter actually as a freshman, and I think really helped being utility because if I could only play second base, I would have never seen the field because we had a senior second baseman.”

Henry batted leadoff, hitting for a .248 average with 32 hits, including 10 doubles and a triple in 48 games, 44 of which she started. She drove in 14 runs in 129 at-bats while scoring 17 more, and went 6-for-6 stealing bases.

In the field, she had a .943 fielding percentage.

The team made it to the conference tournament, where they beat Minot State in a play-in game and then fell to the eventual champions, Augustana University.

CHANGE OF SCENERY

While it was an outstanding freshman season for Henry, and she loved her teammates and the Dragons culture, something just didn’t feel right.

“It was hard being away from home that far,” Henry said. “I only went home once during the whole year. That was the biggest thing. Also, it just didn’t quite feel right for me. A lot of people preach ‘You’ll just know, you’ll feel at home,’ and I never got that feeling there.

“I just thought it would happen through the year but it never did.”

As a result, she decided to take her chances in the transfer portal, which is an NCAA-wide database of players looking for a new opportunity somewhere else.

She emailed her athletic director at MSU to get started, and they emailed back a link. After completing a module, a player’s name is entered into the portal about a week later and they receive an email from the NCAA allowing them to contact coaches.

Her goal was to stay in the NSIC, which limited her options a bit, but she contacted everyone in the conference that had her academic program and began posting her recruiting videos.

It didn’t take long to hear back from coaches, a situation she compared to being recruited for the first time in Grade 11.

The process began in late May and it wasn’t until the end of July that she made her decision. She admitted that two-month period as she reached out to a dozen schools was a nervous time.

“It was honestly the most stressful time in my life,” Henry said. “I think I was more stressed when was in the portal than when I was in Grade 11 first starting my recruiting process. I was really nervous that only teams from like Texas were going to reach out to me and I didn’t want to go to Texas because that’s pretty far. Also, a lot of teams, their school didn’t have the speech program, which obviously I can’t go there.”

NEW HOME

Her concern was that if she didn’t find a school, it could signal the end of her softball career. Even so, she remained confident something would work out.

And it did when Minot State reached out.

“They contacted me and it was ‘Hey, you would be a great fit for us. What do you say?,’” Henry said. “I was like ‘You know what, Minot is a great place.’ My mom went to Minot as well to get her degree so I thought that was pretty special as well.”

Both mother and daughter were studying speech pathology, with Christy playing a year of volleyball before deciding to concentrate on her studies.

A big plus was that Minot is just over 200 kilometres from home.

In the fall, Henry joined the Beavers with the benefit of a year’s college experience under her belt, which made a huge difference.

“It helped so much,” Henry said. “Just even having that year of experience that most freshman don’t get I think developed my skills and my mental confidence so much. Going into a new place, we’re all human so that’s pretty nerve-racking.”

Four of her Moorhead friends had also gone into the portal, so just knowing she wasn’t alone in the experience helped. And then her new teammates stepped in and did the rest.

“The girls at Minot were so welcoming,” Henry said. “They brought me in under their wing the first time I met them. They made that place feel like home and I just immediately knew this was the right decision for me. I immediately felt super comfortable.

“That feeling I talked about before, that you’ll know if you’re in the right place, I felt it and knew it.”

At Minot State, she spent most of the season at second base. At the plate, she hit .206 with 11 RBI and nine runs scored in 68 at-bats.

“The start was really good for me,” Henry said. “I was playing a lot of games, splitting games with our senior second baseman (Paige Kellogg). She was so good, I look up to her so much. I learned so much from her: I thought I knew how to play second base but she gave me so many tips and pointers and now I feel like I’m so much better a second baseman because of her.

“She was like mentor throughout the year, which was so nice to have through the year, especially with a new team.”

LIFE CHANGES

She also liked the schedule.

The players went to school in the morning, hit the weight room at lunch, went back to classes and then practised in the late afternoon. It allowed her to get a little more sleep than in Moorhead.

She lived with two volleyball players and another Virden girl, Georgia Hayward in an apartment. She enjoyed that situation a lot more than living in residence.

She said college softball has a different feel because everyone is working so hard as they compete for spots, but they still somehow support each other and cheer everyone’s successes.

The players spend several hours a day together and get very close, very quickly. She especially appreciated the older women because it gave her a chance to learn “how to life.”

On the field, she said it’s incredible how talented everybody is.

“People are making diving plays left and right, people are hitting home runs,” Henry said. “… From the hitting aspect, the pitching is really good. It’s better. People are throwing real rise balls, real curveballs, they’re throwing pretty quick too, 65 (miles per hour) and up, which is a big difference from what I saw with the Magic.”

She added once you begin playing in that atmosphere, you level up pretty quickly.

It didn’t hurt that she had excellent coaching before she started her college career, which made that jump a little bit slighter.

“The Magic was the root where I blossomed,” Henry said. “They gave so much and I just think that anything I can do to give back to them is super huge to me. I think to my years, and I’m thinking about Kayla (Price) in U12, Tyson Ramsey, Faron (Asham) obviously.

“They all are a huge part of my life and I honestly can’t even thank them enough. They all had so much different knowledge and I learned pretty much everything from them.”

This summer has been exponentially better because she doesn’t have the weight on her back of wondering where she’s heading in the fall. She said it’s felt like a full mental and physical reset.

Henry doesn’t expect to be a captain next season but does think as an older player she’ll be one of the people the younger players look up to, and she’s eager to lead by example.

The team’s projected infield has juniors at third, short and second, with a senior at first, and Henry works well with them.

“I’m super excited to see what the season brings,” Henry said.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com