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You Have To Hand It To Him

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - There was a time when Tyrone Hendrix's hands didn't exactly work like they were supposed to.

As he puts it, he couldn't 'catch a cold' as a Mitchell High sophomore. But now, things have changed.

He improved as a junior, catching 23 passes for 429 yards and three scores, and this summer dedicated himself to waking up at 7 a.m. each day, heading to the Johnny Walters speed camp, working on not just speed, but his route running and pass catching.

Thus far, Hendrix, a senior, is the No. 2 receiver in Pasco County - behind Hudson's Tony Germano - and is the sixth-leading receiver in the Tampa Bay area with his 25 receptions for 378 yards and five touchdowns.

Even better, Hendrix still has the faith of his quarterback Tate Humphrey.

'I remember our sophomore year, he couldn't even catch a cold,' said Humphrey, the top-ranked passer in Pasco County and the No. 4 QB in the Tampa Bay area. 'Now he's been working on his hands a lot and I've been feeding him more and more and getting more confidence in him as a receiver.

'He's been doing real good, stepping up as a leader and everything.'

The dedication to hard work has kept that chemistry between quarterback and receiver on the same wavelength.

'It's good. It's a lot better than it was our sophomore year,' Hendrix said. 'Our sophomore year I couldn't catch a cold and now I've gotten a lot better this year. I still need to work on some things, but I've gotten a lot better since then, so our chemistry has grown good since then.'

When Mitchell coach Scott Schmitz heard of Hendrix's assessment of his sophomore season, Schmitz couldn't help but giggle at the notion.

'He's fairly accurate,' said Schmitz, laughing and then admitting 2005 was the first season his offense switched from the run-heavy Wing-T offense to the pass-happy, run-option spread offense. Back then, Hendrix was a kid with speed who Schmitz wanted to work into the offense.

'Since the end of the season last year to now, don't know if I've got a kid on the football team who works as hard as he does,' Schmitz said, 'and expects to do well all the time. ... The thing that I appreciate and respect a lot about Tyrone now is Tyrone takes responsibility for the things he does on the field.

'There's no excuses. If he drops the ball, he drops the ball and I need to be better, I need to catch that ball. It's not, 'It was a little high or a little low, the lights were in my eyes.' I think that's what made Tyrone a really good football player. In my opinion, he's as good as any football player in the area right now.'

Another project Hendrix must take hold of is the Mustangs defense. This week Hendrix was moved to free safety from his normal cornerback position and has done well, Schmitz said.

The defense has had an issue stopping the run this season and in the last three games, all of which Mitchell has lost, the Mustangs (2-4, 0-1 Class 5A-District 5) have given up an average of 36.0 points.

Tonight, Mitchell will have to stop 5A-5 foe Wharton (4-3, 1-0), a team that stands in the way of a playoff appearance.

'We've got a great opportunity this week,' Schmitz said. 'We can go to Wharton and we can play with Wharton. We've got an opportunity to still go to the playoffs. That's the good thing about being in a four-team district.'

REINSTATED: Last week against Ridgewood, Schmitz sat two of his receivers - Jesse Dustin, the team's second-leading receiver, and Yaz Grabowski, also the backup QB - for violating team rules. The two will return tonight against Wharton. The seniors have combined to catch 42 passes for 600 yards and five TDs.

'They're 16-, 17-year-old kids and sometimes they make mistakes,' Schmitz said. 'Our job is not just to coach, but to teach and teach these guys not only what it takes to win football games, but to be successful because this is just a small part of their life. Both Yaz and Jesse are good kids.'

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