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07/27/2018 12:00 AMHenry Hayden recently completed an impressive four-year career as a student-athlete at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Henry, a Branford resident, stayed busy as a coxswain for the boys’ rowing crew and a senior captain of the wrestling team at Deerfield. As a wrestler, Henry won a pair of Class A championships. For crew, he helped lead a boat of four to a U.S. Rowing youth national championship this year. Henry also coaches sailing at Pine Orchard Country Club during the summer.
Henry sat in the coxswain’s chair for Deerfield Academy’s boys’ rowing crew. On June 10, Henry’s crew won the national championship in Gold River, California after he had helped his boat post an undefeated regular season and then secure a New England Interscholastic Rowing championship.
The members of Henry’s boat at nationals were only able to practice together for a week leading up to the event, which featured races that were 500 meters longer than any of Deerfield’s previous regattas. Henry feels proud about what his crew accomplished in the face of long odds.
“We qualified for nationals, but two of our rowers couldn’t compete, since they were postgraduates. We got two new kids from the team, and we really developed a rhythm together. At nationals, we had the fastest times in the trials, the semis, and the finals,” says Henry. “At the national level, races are 2,000 meters. It feels like twice the race, because the middle 500 becomes a middle 1,000, but when we hit that rhythm in the middle, we walked away from everyone. It was a validation of our entire season.”
Henry helped his rowers make adjustments, while also monitoring conditions and steering the vessel. Fortunately, Henry had a lot of sailing experience that he could rely upon.
“As the coxswain, I sit at the front and steer the boat. I also try to help the rowers’ technique,” Henry says. “There’s a whole lot going on that I need to manage. In terms of the steering, my sailing background helped a lot with that.”
Deerfield boys’ crew Head Coach Spencer Washburn was impressed with what Henry accomplished at the school. Washburn viewed Henry’s quiet leadership and steadfast focus on his goals as a huge benefit for his squad.
“Over the four years that I partnered with Henry, I was continuously impressed with the quiet determination that he possessed. He made a habit of setting goals for himself—academic, athletic, musical, or otherwise—and simply doing what was necessary to achieve them,” Washburn says. “He didn’t do anything for the attention. He did the hard work necessary to achieve his goals, because it was important to him and the others who were involved in those pursuits. As the coxswain for an undefeated New England and national championship boat, Henry’s competitiveness and determination was integral in bringing the crew together and helping them achieve something incredibly special.”
On top of his work on the water, Henry also served as a senior captain for the Deerfield wrestling team. Henry never though that he’d be in that leadership position, but once he was, wrestling for Deerfield became even more enjoyable.
“I had never dreamed that I’d be captain. Then I started to think what it would mean to actually have an impact on this program,” Henry says. “It was one of the best things I’ve done. It was great to be in a leadership role among my best friends. Being a senior captain helped me enjoy last season even more.”
Henry started wrestling in his freshman year, although he originally had other plans. After turning in two solid seasons, he wanted to step it up during his junior and senior years. Henry’s diligence resulted in him winning the Class A championship in the 106-pound division as a junior and then in the 120-pound division for his senior season.
“When I was a freshman, I was set on doing squash, but one of my friends wrestled and asked me to come out. Junior year is when I really hunkered down and really set my mind to it,” says Henry. “To get that championship for something that I wasn’t planning on doing was really exciting to me.”
In this year’s Class A final, Henry went up against a familiar foe who had bested him in the regular season. With that loss fresh in his mind, Henry made sure that he wasn’t too cautious on the big stage.
“The kid I went up against in the final beat me by 13 points at a dual-meet. He probably thought it was in the bag,” Henry says. “I was down one point, so I need a two-point take-down to win. It was a match of strength that came down to one shot. I ended up finishing by coming around behind him to get the take-down. Beating him meant it wasn’t just a one-year thing and that my hard work paid off.”
In addition to his athletic endeavors, Henry was the section lead in Deerfield’s choir and also founded an all-male a capella group called the Mellow-Ds. With so much going on, Henry had to find a way to balance sports with his studies and extracurricular activities.
“I think that I’ve compartmentalized a bit. I can get into a mode of focusing,” says Henry. “I didn’t really have a chance to think of other things. I would go straight from practice and studying. I had to shift gears on a dime and focus on what was in front of me. During the day, I would use free periods to collect my thoughts.”
As for the future, Henry is heading off to Scotland, where he will attend the University of St. Andrews and major in classics. For Henry, it was an easy decision to go there after he visited the campus during the winter holidays. Henry has already secured a spot on the St. Andrews sailing team and can’t wait to get involved in everything the school has to offer.
“Over Christmas break, I was singing in Scotland, and I went to see the campus. Then I started doing more research. It’s a good fit on the sailing, music, and academic fronts,” says Henry, who thanked his mother Gigi, his father Bruce, and his coaches for their support. “They have a competitive sailing team that competes against schools in the whole United Kingdom. I’ve talked to the captain, and I have a spot on the team, and will be competing with them.”