The Crestwood Red Devils girls’ basketball team will have a new face leading the charge on the sideline next season, as T.J. Henderson formally announced he would not be returning for a sixth season in a social media post on X on May 2 as his coaching contract was not renewed.
In five seasons at the helm, Henderson compiled a 57-60 coaching record, including leading the Red Devils to capturing the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division title outright and appearing in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division Northeast 2 district title game.
Henderson was named the Coach of the Year for the CVC Valley Division girls’ basketball league and earned similar honors in the District 3 Division 4 girls’ basketball bracket for the Red Devils’ historic 2024-25 season.
“It was the highlight of my coaching career over 18 years,” Henderson said of his five-year stint with the Red Devil girls. “These girls through the highs and lows worked their butts off or their tails off. When it came down to it, they gave it everything that they had and were always willing to put in extra work and come together as a team.”
Henderson took over the Red Devil girls’ basketball program as they were beginning to settle in the CVC Valley Division in their second year in the league after leaving the Portage Trail Conference.
After the Red Devils went 15-30 in his first two seasons, they found their footing, compiling a 42-30 record over the last three years to become a more formidable team in the conference.
“For the last five years, they have built an understanding and a community and a family within the program,” he added.
Henderson originally arrived at Crestwood three years before he became the girls’ basketball coach when he was still serving as the boys’ basketball coach at Aurora High School. He had been teaching at Maple Heights High School but found a teaching position that was closer in proximity to where he coached.
He was hired as an intervention specialist at the Crestwood elementary school level, where he primarily dealt with students in the special education program.
Henderson credited his work as an intervention specialist for helping shape his coaching identity, as it helped him gain a better understanding that kids of all ability levels required high standards to be set from the first day.
“While you are interacting and having specific conversations and then working on specific drills, everyone is a little different and then you have to meet them where they are at, to help them hopefully reach those standards,” he noted.
After Henderson’s time as the Aurora boys’ basketball coach ended after the 2019-2020 season, he landed a coaching job as the Kenston Bombers boys’ junior varsity coach the next season.
According to him, he planned on returning as the boys’ junior varsity coach for the 2021-22 season but heard that Crestwood had an opening for the girls’ basketball coaching position and seized the opportunity to take on a coaching job in the same school district where he taught.
He acknowledged that coaching and teaching in the same school district for the last five years could not have been a more ideal fit.
“You see a lot of coaches now aren’t teachers and for them they get to see the kids during practice times or weight room times,” he said. “They don’t get to see the kids in the hallways or in classes or have those growing times that you can build different connections and it was really nice to see my kids that whenever they needed something.”
Henderson said that working in the Crestwood school district was a great fit because of his own upbringing in Kirtland, so he had an appreciation for a small close-knit community like Mantua.
“It has been cool to have been working in a similar kind of community where there is a lot of pride and you see multiple generations or you see big families come through and you know that they are going to be there again,” he said
After two years at the elementary school, Henderson transitioned to becoming an intervention specialist at the high school level for four years and has since served as the middle school’s mental health/physical education teacher for the last two years.
Henderson still holds his teaching position at the middle school and said that he has received significant interest from respective coaches to join their staffs but has decided for the time being to take time off from basketball for the 2026-27 school year and focus on spending time with his family. He did not dismiss the possibility that would return to coaching soon but for the first time in 18 years, he will enjoy some time away from coaching basketball.
