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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Confidence key for Henry after knee injury

henry: Aaron Henry has been struggling to get back onto the field since tearing a knee ligament in 2007.

Confidence key for Henry after knee injury

Coming back from a torn knee ligament to play college football is no easy task. Going through three surgeries on the same knee and returning to play after a year and a half away from the game is even tougher.

This is the path sophomore Wisconsin cornerback Aaron Henry has been forced to walk after hurting his knee before the Outback Bowl in 2007. Instead of seeing the year away from football as a bad thing, he took something positive from the whole experience.

""I learned a ton,"" Henry said. ""I learned patience, I learned to see the game from a different perspective, I guess. Football has always been my first love, and so when I got hurt, it really had to take a back seat to everything else that was going on in my life.""

Henry returned to the field this season, and has been one of the team's top corners, despite still looking to regain an extra edge after all the time off. He hoped he would be able to suit up for the Badgers at some point in 2008 but less than a month into the season had to abandon that dream. 

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""It was disappointing, but then again it wasn't disappointing. As bad as I wanted to come back and as bad as I wanted to help out my team, I didn't want to put myself in a position to where I would never have played football again,"" Henry said. ""I didn't jeopardize my team, I didn't put myself out there to ... not play to my ability.

""If I don't feel comfortable in my knee, I'm not going to go out there and try to fake the funk.""

In his freshman season, Henry collected 3.5 sacks and one interception while playing in 12 games.

After his initial surgery, Henry, as he put it, ""messed up"" his knee two more times and twice more went under the knife. Where some players struggle with an injury and grow apart from their teammates, he made sure to keep involved.

One player who played a large role in that effort was Allen Langford, who also tore his ACL in 2007 but returned as a senior in 2008.

""[Henry] knew that he needed to take advantage and watch Langford, and watch what he did,"" senior safety Chris Maragos said. ""He was in there with the game plans and understood what was going on. He didn't take a year off mentally: he did physically, but not mentally.""

Maragos went on to call Henry ""bull-headed"" in terms of his persistence and work ethic.

Another factor that helped push Henry through his long journey back to football was his strong Christian faith. Both Maragos and junior safety Jay Valai referred to Henry as ""a good religious kid.""

""It really, really made me appreciate my faith so much more,"" Henry said about the year and a half off. ""When I was going through that injury, I was just thinking, ‘man, when it's all said and done, the Lord's bringing me through this for a reason. I don't understand why; I don't know why.'

""We're all going to have to go through storms and it's all going to be rainy days for some of us, you know what I'm saying, but the rain don't last forever.""

Henry even used a specific passage from the book of James as a way to see his recovery, saying ""Consider it pure joy, my brother, when you face trials of many kinds.""

Now that Henry has overcome many of those trials, he says his knee is in great shape and he can run full speed.

But playing cornerback after a knee injury is more than just how a player feels physically. There is also the question of confidence and regaining a necessary feel for the position.

""I feel like my knee is 100 percent. It's not really much the knee per se. I just feel like sometimes when you play one year, and then you take a year off, you don't come back and everything is starting to click then and there,"" Henry said, sighing. ""It's just a matter of going out there and the game speed of it. You can practice all day, you know what I'm saying, you can do real, real good at practice, but when you get in a game, game speed is totally different.""

Secondary coach Kerry Cooks, Maragos and Valai all agree Henry is nearing a point where everything clicks and he returns to the top form of his freshman season. None know when that point will come, but all are hoping it is soon, for Henry and for the good of the team.

""The game of football is a lot more mental than people think,"" Valai said. ""So if you put your body through a test and you're confident in yourself, you should be good to go. As Aaron's confidence comes more and more, I think his playing is going to improve a lot.""

After a rough day in the Badgers' last game against Iowa, Henry is still waiting for that moment when everything comes back and feels right.

Considering the climb he's already endured coming back from his original injury, the summit may not be too much further.

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