NEARLY 15 YEARS have handed since Chris Henry final stepped foot on a soccer area previous to his tragic dying in December 2009. Some mornings at Southern California’s Golden West School, T.J. Houshmandzadeh nonetheless catches glimpses of the tall, reserved vast receiver he as soon as knew throughout their enjoying careers with the Cincinnati Bengals.
On the turf, there is a skinny 16-year-old move catcher who runs identical to Henry did when he emerged as a downfield favourite of Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer within the mid-2000s. There’s one thing acquainted in the best way the child drops his weight and operates his lengthy, lanky body. At 6-foot-6 and 200 kilos, the younger vast receiver plucks passes out of the air with the grace of an influence ahead hovering for a rebound, boxing out opposing defensive backs.
Every little thing Houshmandzadeh sees when he watches Chris Henry Jr., one of many prime prospects in the highschool class of 2026, he has seen earlier than.
“[Houshmandzadeh will] simply be struck by how comparable I’m to my dad,” Henry, the No. 2 participant within the ESPN Junior 300, informed ESPN. “We’ll simply be reminiscing and stuff like that. It is reassurance for me.”
Houshmandzadeh remembers loads about “Slim,” the quiet teammate he understood higher than most did. And its tales like those Houshmandzadeh can now inform Henry, in between reps on the sphere at Golden West, which have helped one of many nation’s most promising prospects come to know a father he hardly knew whereas charting his personal rise to soccer stardom.
Henry is behind solely five-star defensive finish Jahkeem Stewart in ESPN’s 2026 participant rankings. He’s the No. 1 vast receiver and certainly one of solely 9 five-star recruits within the 2026 cycle.
Dedicated to Ohio State since July 2023, Henry stands among the many highest-rated commits in program historical past, anticipated to reach in Columbus in two years as the following vast receiver within the Buckeyes’ current pipeline of elite move catchers, dripping in all the identical hype that adopted Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. earlier than him. Whilst Henry plans to go to Oregon and LSU this summer time, he stays agency in his dedication to reach at Ohio State in 2026.
Now surrounded by elite expertise in Southern California after transferring to powerhouse Mater Dei Excessive Faculty, Henry is ideally positioned for the kind of improvement he’ll must carve his legacy when he arrives at Ohio State. As he embarks on a brand new chapter, Henry appears to be like forward, spurred not solely by a dream and the reminiscence of a father he is aware of via tales and spotlight reel touchdowns, but in addition the palms of two former teammates who knew his dad greatest.
“I believe all people in his life desires to see Chris Henry Jr. play on Sundays,” Mater Dei vast receivers coach James Griffin mentioned. “The child has every thing — he is identical to his dad. He is working his butt off to be elite like that day-after-day.”
HENRY LANDED AT Mater Dei in January after two years residing with Adam “Pacman” Jones in Ohio, certainly one of his dad’s previous West Virginia teammates. The 13-year NFL vet regaled Henry with numerous tales of Chris Henry, the nice and the dangerous. The following transfer to California that landed Henry at Mater Dei, his mom, Loleini Tonga mentioned, was a “leap of religion” tied to household and an enlargement of her house well being care enterprise.
The transfer undoubtedly matches Henry soccer aspirations, too, arriving simply because the crucial years of his gridiron improvement come into focus.
Henry thrived in Ohio, the place he spent his freshman 12 months at West Clermont Excessive Faculty, earlier than leaping to Withrow as a sophomore, setting a faculty file with 1,127 receiving yards on 71 catches with 10 touchdowns in his solely season on campus. At Mater Dei, he is attending his third faculty in as a few years, competing alongside, and towards, a better caliber of expertise than he is ever seen on a soccer area.
The Monarchs’ roster this fall consists of six seniors ranked contained in the ESPN 300. Mater Dei’s junior class consists of one other 5 ESPN 300 prospects, led by Henry and top-30 offensive sort out Kodi Greene.
When Henry runs routes in follow, he is going towards Penn State commit Daryus Dixson or Alabama commit Chuck McDonald III with a pair of linebackers, Nasir Wyatt and Abduall Sanders Jr. certain for Oregon and Alabama, respectively, ready over the center. And the Monarchs’ schedule will enable Henry to compete towards the nation’s prime expertise with matchups towards fellow nationwide powers, together with Bishop Gorman (Nevada), Kahuku (Hawaii) and Southern California rival St. John Bosco.
“It is a night time and day distinction for Chris,” Griffin mentioned. “He’ll get the very best video games he can get till he can get to varsity. That is the preparation for a caliber child like himself.”
Henry considers the brand new environment a welcomed problem. He is aware of the usual inside Brian Hartline’s vast receivers room at Ohio State and fashions his recreation for a program that has had 4 receivers drafted within the first spherical up to now three NFL drafts.
“I am attempting to go to Ohio State and to be a man,” Henry mentioned. “I am attempting to go there and play, simply present what I can do from the beginning. I am right here to organize myself for the following degree.”
NOT LONG AFTER Henry arrived in California, Houshmandzadeh discovered that the son of his former teammate was all of the sudden residing quarter-hour away, so he fired off a textual content to Henry and made the household a easy provide: “If y’all need assistance, I am right here that will help you.”
Some days at Golden West, Henry trains with the vast receiver corps from Oregon. On others, he’ll catch passes from Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. Throughout a session with Houshmandzadeh, the 11-year NFL vet who coaches a number of professional receivers within the offseasons, Henry is as more likely to work alongside Indianapolis Colts‘ Michael Pittman Jr. and Detroit Lions‘ Amon-Ra St. Brown — two of the sport’s highest-paid vast receivers — as he’s to run into a few of the prime passers within the sport akin to Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Bryce Younger and Dak Prescott on Houshmandzadeh’s record of normal purchasers.
Among the many professionals and prime faculty abilities who come to study from Houshmandzadeh at Golden West, Henry seldom seems misplaced.
“He would begin at each faculty in America proper now and he nonetheless has two years remaining in highschool,” Houshmandzadeh mentioned. “That is how legit he’s.”
Henry has been working with Houshmandzadeh since April, lengthy sufficient for the previous Professional Bowler to see that Henry strikes like receivers his measurement not often do. Ditto for the suddenness Henry flashes when he cuts out of a route.
“I noticed Calvin Johnson dwell within the flesh. And I noticed Larry Fitzgerald. I noticed Chris’ daddy, too,” Griffin mentioned. “To see anyone like him with that lengthy body transfer and get out of a minimize like he can, I used to be like, ‘Wow.’ He is Plaxico Burress combined with Calvin Johnson and a little bit little bit of Charles Rogers when he was at Michigan State. He’s freaking particular, bro.”
Houshmandzadeh understands the comparisons. He noticed all sides of the older Henry.
A fifth-year professional by the point Chris Henry was drafted within the third spherical out of West Virginia, Houshmandzadeh watched him burn vivid on the sphere, hauling in 15 touchdowns throughout his first two seasons within the NFL. However Houshmandzadeh noticed Henry battle, too. He was arrested 5 instances in 4 years and confronted a sequence of league suspensions from 2005 to 2008. Across the identical time, Henry was constructing a household with Tonga amid the off-field hassle clouding his soccer profession.
With Tonga and a rising household at house, coaches and teammates noticed Henry turning a nook. Then, on Dec. 17, 2009, Houshmandzadeh stood in entrance of a TV in Seattle, devastated.
The night time earlier than, Henry and Tonga had gotten into an argument at a household house in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tonga drove off in a pickup truck; Henry jumped into the truck’s mattress, then tumbled out of it. Medical doctors pronounced him lifeless at Carolinas Medical Heart at 6:36 a.m. on Dec. 17, leaving three younger kids, together with two-year-old Chris Jr., behind.
A health worker confirmed that Chris Henry, 26, died of blunt power trauma to the pinnacle.
“I believe Chris was grossly misunderstood as an individual,” Houshmandzadeh informed the Springfield Information-Solar (Ohio) two days after Henry’s dying. “… I knew a distinct Chris Henry than his public persona would point out.”
A decade and a half later, Chris Henry Jr. carries all the identical potential his father possessed however by no means obtained to totally notice, possibly much more of it. On the sphere at Golden West, Houshmandzadeh will watch his former teammate’s son prepare and ponder the chance sitting in entrance of Henry Jr.
“T.J. was a mentor to Chris when he got here to the Bengals,” Tonga mentioned. “It is virtually the identical scenario now. For my son, T.J. is certainly one of his people who he can belief.”
That issues as Henry Jr. stares down a future in faculty soccer with colossal title, picture and likeness potential. Signed with agent David Mulugheta since Could, model offers such because the one Henry Jr. signed with Adidas final month are simply the beginning. In 5 years, Houshmandzadeh is assured Henry Jr. will probably be a top-five NFL draft decide.
“From an expert standpoint, it is a enterprise for him,” Houshmandzadeh mentioned. “You must strategy it as such. What you are promoting is your physique and it’s important to maximize it. I need to see him Man-Man — as they name him — succeed. If I can play an element in maximizing that, I am keen to do it.”
WHEN OHIO STATE provided Henry in June 2022, every thing modified. The calls got here extra continuously. Extra presents rolled in.
Over the following two years, consideration was fixed as Henry cemented himself as one of many prime recruits in his class. It was one of many many instances when he may need wished to lean on his father for perspective.
As a substitute, because the household navigated the recruiting course of, it turned to certainly one of Chris Henry’s former teammates.
Pacman Jones shared a bond with Henry from their earliest days collectively at West Virginia within the early 2000s. After Henry’s dying, he grew to become “Uncle Pac” to his former teammate’s kids, internet hosting them for Thanksgivings and journeys to Cincinnati. When Henry Jr. grew to become a nationally coveted prospect, Jones felt an urge to assist and pitched Tonga on shifting her two sons to dwell with him in Ohio.
Tonga noticed worth in what Jones might present her kids in a formative second, so the boys moved in with Jones, his spouse, Tishana, and their 4 kids forward of Henry’s freshman 12 months. In Cincinnati, Jones pushed Henry’s sons identical to he pushed Henry at West Virginia. He launched Henry and his brother, DeMarcus, a category of 2027 basketball prospect, to elite coaching. And whereas Henry fielded presents from the highest applications within the nation, Jones was a key participant in navigating the recruitment via Henry Jr.’s dedication to Ohio State.
Opposite to different stories, Jones by no means formally adopted the boys. However, Tonga, who joined her boys in Ohio shortly after the transfer, nonetheless considers Jones a part of the household nucleus.
“I really feel like Uncle Pac helped him lots,” mentioned Henry’s older sister, Seini, a freshman basketball participant at Ohio State. “He was the daddy determine guiding Chris via all of that stuff.”
Jones had crucial knowledge. Much more crucially, Pacman had tales about Chris Henry, the type of recollections that for Chris Henry Jr. hold a father who handed practically 15 years in the past nonetheless alive.
Henry heard them from his mother and grandmother rising up in North Carolina. They informed tales of a quiet sweetheart and legendary prankster. In Ohio, Jones might spin a yarn on his and Henry’s wild instances at West Virginia. In California, Houshmandzadeh tells Henry Jr. tales about watching his dad develop into a person in Cincinnati.
One other hyperlink from father to son comes via the highlights Henry left behind. Each different week or so, he’ll sit in mattress scouring YouTube for the acquainted clips of his dad torching opposing defenses. An 83-yard rating towards Rutgers. A seize over Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor. Chris Henry’s first profession landing. A 67-yard sprint towards Syracuse.
From a vault of massive performs, Chris Henry Jr.’s favourite spotlight is certainly one of his dad’s easiest, a game-winning rating in a 19-16 time beyond regulation victory over Maryland on Sept. 18, 2004.
Henry runs a slant into the top zone and hauls in a seven-yard move from Rasheed Marshall. West Virginia’s Milan Puskar Stadium erupts and Henry launches the ball into the air. As Henry Jr. watches No. 5 in blue and gold bask within the scene earlier than a mob of teammates arrives to rejoice, his father is a hero.
“I simply image myself there,” Chris Henry Jr. mentioned. “I see myself in these moments. I see myself in these movies. I see myself in him.”
