Monica Brooks-Skinner always looks for signs of Darvin Henderson.
Her son was a 2008 Ewing High School graduate who gave back to his community as a coach and philanthropist before passing away tragically at 31 just days after Thanksgiving in 2021 due to asthma complications.
“I’m still sad and it’s been two years,” said Brooks-Skinner. “It seemed like it was yesterday.”
The inaugural Darvin Henderson Memorial 7on7 Tournament hosted by Ewing High on July 18 was a tribute to Henderson’s legacy, and she felt his presence as she stood and watched the six area teams play in his honor two weeks ahead of the start of their preseason.
“This was awesome and I know he just shining down, watching this,” said Brooks-Skinner. “The clouds opened up and then this whole big red sun came out. I saluted to the sun. I don’t know if nobody noticed me, but I was in saluting it. Everything was beautiful.”
Ewing football coach Ross Maddalon started organizing the event in February. He reached out to area teams Nottingham, Hopewell Valley, Trenton, Notre Dame and Lawrence, and all responded with enthusiasm.
“When I mentioned it to them back in February, they were all gung ho about it,” said Maddalon, who heads into his third season at the helm of the Blue Devils. “They were all extraordinarily excited. And they’re like, let’s do it. They were very appreciative. The coaches were great. And overall it was just a great evening.”
Hopewell prevailed in the final seconds of the final game to win the title. Each team played the other five teams in a sort of round robin. Games had a 25-minute running clock and they played three games at a time – two split on the turf field and one on grass. Messages to Maddalon after the game all reflected a similar feeling.
“This was perfect,” he said. “They all felt it’s great to honor Darv. It was a great idea to do it. They were all very, very pleased with the turn out the competitiveness.”
Maddalon wanted to do something to honor Henderson, who he’d heard so much about following his death. After graduating from Ewing, Henderson went on to earn an associate’s degree from Monmouth University and a bachelor’s degree from Seton Hill University. After graduating from college, he established Playmaker Athletics, and he spent much of his life training and bettering others.
“He just wanted to train them kids and make sure their kids would be the best they can be,” Brooks-Skinner said. “And they are so that was why my heart is happy now.”
She still hears from families that were impacted by Henderson’s training and the success that their son helped to create. He didn’t stop there. He raised funds and passed out turkeys and food around Thanksgiving – doing some days before his death – and supplied winter coats and items to those in need. He did more, but kept his contributions low key.
“Every single time I kept hearing his name, there was something positive to be said about him,” Maddalon said. “I’ve never heard one person speak ill will about him whatsoever and everything has been positive. He’s a had major impact, and been a positive influence, a great role model. Everything about him, he was in it for the kids, giving rides to kids, everything else. And you know, everything was fantastic.”
The first two years after his death, his mother gave away $3,000 to three college-bound student-athletes through the Darvin Henderson Book Scholarship Fund. The inaugural 7on7 event helped today’s players remember his legacy from around the area. Henderson’s reach always went well beyond Ewing Township.
“I thought they might forget about him until coach Maddalon called,” Brooks-Skinner said.
She was touched by the gesture. At the event’s conclusion, Maddalon invited Brooks-Skinner onto the field where the teams gathered at midfield. She gave some brief comments to all that gathered there about her son.
“It was so wonderful to bring all the football players together for my son because that’s all he loved was football,” Brooks-Skinner said. “And all he loved was to pick people up and train kids.”
Said Maddalon: “She was very, very thankful and we were thankful for having her show up as well.”
He is hoping to continue holding the event in honor of Henderson. It was an event he would have loved. The six teams got to take a look at their skill positions in the leadup to the season.
“Every single team was very, very competitive,” Maddalon said. “They all played hard. I thought for the first time running it, I thought it went very well.”
Ewing has been holding workouts through the summer each week from Monday through Thursday. They don’t always have the opportunity to do 7on7 though, and so this was a special event.
“I know a lot of the other teams do very, very similar things,” Maddalon said. “We’ll do a little bit of 7on7 against each other like inner squad, maybe a couple days a week after practice. But this is the only one that we do officially against other teams.
“Through the summer, I know teams like Hopewell and Notre Dame and Nottingham have gone to some others. They’ve gone to some either at their own place or they’ve done something, maybe at like a tournament or two. This is the only one that we have technically done, and it’s good.”
It’s a different look from a normal practice night. The quarterbacks and receivers as well as the secondary on defense all get some helpful work, though it’s different without the linemen there and some of the pressures that could come with them.
“It’s not always, I would say, realistic football at all,” Maddalon said. “But it’s something where at least you can work on for offense, your route timing, your route running, quarterback reads. Defensively, you could work your drop zones. You could work your man coverage. You could correct a lot of technique in 7on7, which is beneficial.”
With preseason set to begin the second week of August, Maddalon is excited about the Blue Devils’ potential. They have been holding workouts and splitting time between getting stronger and faster in the weight room and fine tuning their skills on the field.
“We have a really good group of kids this year and we have a lot of great attitudes,” Maddalon said. “The kids are going to work hard and we’re really looking forward to getting going with them.”
The program makes it about more than football. In March, the team participated in the Read Across America campaign for the second straight year. They visited elementary schools and read to the kids. The week before the Darvin Henderson Memorial, the Blue Devils hosted a one-day youth clinic that helped connect with the Ewing community. It welcomed 46 players third through eighth grade.
“We’re trying to promote the sport as much as possible and hopefully get back as much as we can,” Maddalon said.
There’s a purposeful approach to involving the Ewing football players in such events. Henderson’s example was particularly meaningful for the outlook.
“We’re preaching to everybody there, not just Ewing, but all the teams that there’s things bigger than football,” Maddalon said. “There’s a bigger picture. There’s something always that’s going to be more important and we talk about things like being a good role model, we talk about integrity, we talk about character, we talk about being a good person and football teaches you those lessons.
He said that life teaches people many lot of things that they might not get from other places.
“At some point in a kid’s lifetime, unless they end up becoming an NFL football player, football’s going to be gone,” Maddalon said. “So we try to tell the kids, you’re doing this and you’re doing that to become a better football player, but getting the community involved.”
Examples include things like the 7on7 tournament, youth clinics, and the Read Across Americ campaign.
“We need our kids to grow up to become respectable young adults,”
he said. “Doing these things resonates with them. It may not hit them as much right now, but later on in life, when they look back hopefully it’s molding them to become fine young men.”
Henderson walked that walk. He lived his life for others after graduating from Ewing.
“He’s impacted the world,” said Brooks-Skinner.
And the Ewing High School football team organized a well-deserved event to keep Darvin Henderson’s rich legacy alive.
Darvin Henderson passed away in 2021.,
