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Bobby Ramsay watched from a short distance as the greatest player he'd ever coach couldn't keep his balance.
The Yulee (Fla.) High School coach knew he had a superstar-in-the-making when Derrick Henry joined his team as a 205-pound ninth grader, but there was work to do. Henry was already a physical specimen, but his ability to stop at an exact point and change direction while maintaining his speed was a mess.
He was 14 years old, after all.
Back, forth and plop Henry went during his first attempts at the shuttle run -- a conditioning drill that has a runner sprint 5 yards, stop, sprint 10 yards in the other direction, stop and finish with another 5-yard sprint in the opposite direction. By the end of the day, Henry's falls during the drill had created a 5-yard swath of matted grass.
"He couldn't touch the ground and change direction," Ramsay said. "Then you look two years later, he's good enough to compete with the best kids as a junior. When he's not good at something, he's going to attack it."
During the summer before his senior year, just a couple months before he committed to Alabama, Henry finished first overall in the SPARQ Combine test, which tallies a player's results in a number of agility and strength drills into one score. Henry's shuttle time of 4.12 seconds was eighth out of 95 participants.