Quashae Hendryx and head coach Jim Stone are all smiles following Blair’s MAPL championship win.
Blair Academy student Quashae’ Hendryx scores winning touchdown in Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship
Township residents know Quincy Hendryx, Sr. as the Hamilton Police Detective honored for his community service, but back in the day, he was known for something else.
Hendryx was one of the leading scorers on the 1986 Nottingham High boys’ soccer team, which won the first Central Jersey Group III title for any sport in school history and, to this day, is the lone Stars soccer team to win a sectional.
Years later, Quincy tried to get his son Quashae’ to jump on that soccer bandwagon, and needless to say, coach Jim Stone and the Blair Academy football team are happy he failed.
While it was Quincy who scored the winning goal in the ’86 CJ III final, it was Quashae’ Hendryx who scored what proved to be the winning touchdown for Blair in its 13-6 win over Peddie on Nov. 9, giving the Bucs the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) championship.
“It’s crazy how that works out,” Quincy said. “I made the winning goal for our only championship to date, and 27 years later my son has the winning touchdown to win the MAPL.
“The only thing wrong with that picture is that he didn’t get his football skills from my soccer skills. I still think he would have made a great sweeper. He doesn’t believe so.”
He certainly made a great fullback for Blair this year. After four years playing varsity for Hun, the Bromley neighborhood resident headed north for a postgraduate year. As a main ball carrier in Stone’s wishbone offense, Hendryx rushed for 542 yards and eight touchdowns on 89 carries, averaging 6.1 yards per rush.
As a linebacker, he had nearly 50 tackles, seven sacks and three interceptions.
“He did a great job,” Stone said. “He was a real load at fullback, he provided a one-two punch with our big back, who had 1,194 yards. Our offense is based around the fullback’s efforts and he did a great job leading the way there. We’re really pleased with what he was able to do.”
For Hendryx, it was a return to hauling the pigskin. As a sophomore at Hun, he said it was a “happy medium between me blocking and being a ball carrier.” But he switched around to different positions the next two years, and his touches decreased.
When he arrived at Blair, he knew thing would change from having advance notice.
“Playing against Blair for four years, I knew how dangerous the wishbone could be and how difficult it was to defend,” he said. “It seemed like once you stopped one play there was two or three others that worked. Playing at Hun, my one job against Blair was to tackle the fullback every single play no matter what.
“My senior year, I was scouting Blair and calculated the fullback touched the ball one out of every six offensive plays. So when I had to the opportunity to play in this offensive it was, in fact, a dream come true. I knew that I was capable of being a great ball carrier. Coach Stone put me in the position to do that. I think I fit just right in coach’s wishbone.”
Hendryx has been fitting in since the first grade, when he started playing in Burlington City. He was influenced by his grandfather, a diehard Cowboys fan, and his godfather, former Hamilton West, Syracuse University and NFL standout Kevin Johnson.
Hendryx began as a running back and moved to the defensive line, then followed his uncle, Clarence Stockton (another Hamilton police officer) to play Pop Warner football in Trenton. It was there he began playing linebacker and fullback, helping Trenton to the district championship.
During that time, Hendryx did try and follow in dad’s footsteps a little bit, playing two years of rec soccer in Hamilton. He returned to soccer for the fall and spring of his seventh-grade year because he couldn’t make the Pop Warner weight class.
“I was pretty good at soccer from being around my father,” Hendryx said. “And no seventh-grader wanted to get in the way of a 5-9, 180-pound kid running down the field.”
Hendryx’s late grandmother, Brenda Murphy, naturally approved of soccer over football. She was born in London and was a big Arsenal fan.
“But,” Hendryx said, “I think I had a natural calling for football.”
That calling led him to Hun, where Hendryx played special teams as a freshman before breaking his hand against Pennington midway through the season.
He returned to play fullback and linebacker and was on every special team as a sophomore. As a junior he rotated between fullback and tight end; and inside and outside linebacker. The Raiders went 7-1 and won the MAPL that year, losing only to Peddie.
In a senior season cut short by Hurricane Sandy, Hendryx did it all on a team that had just 15 varsity players. In a six-game season, he played every offensive position but center and quarterback.
“You don’t see many six-foot, 225-pound left tackles these days,” Hendryx said. “But that was me for three games that season. In one of my starts, I had the task of blocking a five-star defensive end from Poly Prep, who was committed to Notre Dame, and I did not give up a single tackle or block.”
The season ended disappointingly as Peddie scored on a 2-point conversion with no time left to win the final game. Hendryx would get his revenge this year, but he considered Lawrenceville and Peddie along with Blair. He was looked at by some Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA) schools, but his senior highlight film did not show enough of him at fullback.
He decided to PG and opted for Blair, which was the only school that would allow him to play both fullback and linebacker.
“It was important to me to play for a coach that had a great tradition of winning and knew how to lead a football team,” Hendryx said. “I found that with Coach Stone.”
Hendryx not only had a strong season statistically, he fit right in with his teammates of just one year.
“He came in like he’s been here for four years,” Stone said. “He’s a great kid, a high character kid. He looks after the younger kids, always encouraging them. He’s so coachable, I was nothing but pleased with him.
“Everybody loves him; even the people that don’t know him that well. He’s great for our community, I’m sure he was great with the Hun community. I wish I had him longer.”
Hendryx, who said he prides himself on being an enjoyable person who can relate to different people, admitted he wanted to be a role model this year.
“I thought back to my freshman year at Hun and how much I looked up to the PGs,” he said. “I wanted the young kids on the team and in school to look up to me like I looked up to the PGs when I was a freshman. So I did little things that I thought would leave them with a good example to follow.”
Things like eating with them, making sure they were adjusting to being away from home, and running with kids who fell behind during conditioning sprints just to give them someone to cross the finish line with.
“I felt it gave them encouragement and let them know that no matter if they are first or last, I would be right next to them to help them finish,” Hendryx said.
One of this year’s highlights was Blair taking a 23-6 win over Hun, as Hendryx ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns.
“I knew everyone would be watching, and I would be judged off my performance,” he said. “I felt like LeBron James when he made his return to Cleveland for the first time. Hun Week is a big time of year for the Blair football team, and I think it was even bigger this year due to me being on this side now.
“It’s not every day you get to play against your friends and old coaches. (New head coach) John Law really helped me grow as a player, and the new offensive coordinator Pat Jones helped me more than anyone during my four years at Hun.”
The next stop is on to college, and Hendryx’s goal is to play college football. Stone feels it will happen.
“He will get looks,” the coach said. “There are people looking at him already. We’re looking for the right place for him as fullback, not many people run that (wishbone) offense anymore. He does have talents at the fullback position, and he’s also a good linebacker.”
And there are some out there who think he would have been a heck of a sweeper. Although, it’s probably not a bad thing we never found out.
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