FF_120519

44 | December 5, 2019 | the frankfort station sports
frankfortstationdaily.com
Football
4
Henning leaves East with two state titles, legacy in place
JON DEPAOLIS, Freelance Reporter
Just how much can one player
change a program’s fortune?
For the answer, look no further
than Lincoln-Way East and its star
senior AJ Henning. Before the
Michigan-bound Henning took
over as a varsity star in 2017, the
Griffins were a perennial playoff
team capable of making noise in
the postseason.
But with Henning, East has won
two state titles in three seasons
and has held a top three state ranking
since early in the 2017 season.
“We’ve had so many kids that
you could say are once-in-a-lifetime
players – Nick Allegretti,
Devin O’Rourke and the list goes
on,” East coach Rob Zvonar said.
“But Henning might be a once-ina-lifetime
player, and he just continues
to prove it.”
As a full-time varsity player
– Henning made his first official
appearance as a freshman in the
Griffins’ 2016 playoff run – the
standout rushed 195 times for
1,237 yards and 22 touchdowns,
while catching 81 passes for 1,356
yards and 20 touchdowns.
In his two state final appearances,
Henning was at his best.
He rushed for 279 yards and three
touchdowns on 46 attempts over
the two East wins.
Henning said he takes to heart
the old mantra of big-time players
playing their best in big-time
games.
“I visualize myself going into
the game making those big plays,”
he said. “I tell the O-line to visualize
themselves making that block
to free up that extra space for me,
because if I have that crease, I
know we can make something
happen. Whenever there is open
space, there is always a chance.”
Henning proved that one more
time in his final high school game,
when he dashed 56 yards for a
touchdown down the right sideline
to help the Griffins pull away for a
12-0 win over Warren in the Class
8A state championship game Saturday,
Nov. 30.
Lincoln-Way East senior AJ Henning looks for running room in the Class 8A state championship game
against Warren on Saturday, Nov. 30, in DeKalb. Henning ran for 125 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown
run, in the Griffins’ 12-0 victory. Julie McMann/22nd Century Media
Henning finished with 125
yards on 29 carries.
“The bigger stage, the bigger
the performance,” Zvonar said.
“That’s the old saying: Big-time
players make big-time plays in
big-time games. That’s certainly
who he is. The bigger the stage,
the bigger the performance. He
seems to thrive in those and continually
come through.”
In 2017, Henning stole the show
in the 8A final by rushing for 154
yards in the Griffins’ 23-14 victory
over Loyola. One of his many
highlights was when Henning
found a seam on the right side, got
to the sideline and went 63 yards
for the touchdown to give his team
the narrow lead. Then, he broke a
42-yard run for a touchdown to ice
the game in the fourth quarter.
Zvonar said he thinks Henning
elevated that 2017 team.
“We’ve gone back through that
year several times, and it wasn’t
just the state game,” Zvonar said.
“I’m not sure we win that [second
round] game in the mud without
his kickoff return. We were 14-0,
but we think it might have been an
8-3 season without him.”
Leading into the 2019 title
game, Henning put together his
best season to date – rushing for
523 yards and 14 touchdowns,
while catching 52 passes for 748
yards and 13 touchdowns. In the
playoffs alone, Henning totaled
226 rushing yards, 266 receiving
yards and 10 total touchdowns.
Henning stayed healthy for
a full season for the first time at
East.
“What we’re really so happy
about is that he was able to play
week in and week out this year,”
Zvonar said. “The fact that this
kid played 14 games, rewrote our
record book, he is not just an All-
Stater – he’s an All-American.”
Aside from Henning’s individual
accolades, the Griffins also
sported a 40-1 record during his
three seasons on varsity. The lone
blemish on the Griffins’ resume
during Henning’s tenure was a 24-
16 loss to Loyola in the 2018 8A
semifinals – a game in which Henning
was limited because of an
injury that kept him to just seven
games played in the season.
“I don’t know if there has been
a more storied young man [in
program history],” Zvonar said.
“You’d have to say he is right in
that conversation with the all-time
greats – and probably at the top of
the list of offensive skill players.”
Henning will participate in the
2020 All-American Bowl in San
Antonio on Jan. 4. Then, it is on
to Ann Arbor to play for Jim Harbaugh
and the Wolverines in the
Big Ten.
“I’m going to enjoy this win for
a while, but I’m definitely excited
to close this chapter and open up a
new one and get started playing at
Michigan,” Henning said.
Henning will always be a Griffin
at heart. He said it meant the
world to him to close out his high
school career with the state title.
“It is so special to me, especially
coming off of last year with
the injury,” he said. “Just to do
it with this group of guys, who
I’ve been with since seventh and
eighth grade – we are just a group
of brothers who stuck together and
finished it out here tonight. It’s a
special thing.”
Jeff Vorva
Vorva wins
his first
Pressbox
Picks title
STAFF REPORT
Despite what he calls
one of his worst runs of
luck in covering high
school football, Jeff Vorva,
the sports editor of The
Orland Park Prairie and
The Tinley Junction, won
his first Pressbox Picks
championship after going
61-16, ousting Senior Editor
Thomas Czaja by one
game.
“I don’t want to complain,”
complained Vorva.
“But this football season I
had issues with the internet
under deadline, my camera,
my health and the final
game of the season my car
battery died. So, winning
this was like finding a diamond
in a cesspool. This
was a tough field of pickers
to beat.”
Lincoln-Way-area
Sports Editor Steve Millar
tied last year’s champion,
Publisher Joe Coughlin,
for third with a 58-19
mark. The New Lenox
Patriot editor Sean Hastings
was 54-23 and Chief
Marketing Officer Heather
Warthen finished 51-26.
As a group, the panel
finished 342-120 – 74 percent,
which would be a ‘C’
in most classrooms and a
‘D’ in a few others.