Baseball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Alma Mater:
- Missouri Southern, 1983
Ken Henderson served nine seasons as the head coach of Saluki Baseball from 2011-19. He was a Division I coach for 35 seasons and coached at SIU as an assistant coach or head coach for 29 seasons from 1991-2019. A long-time assistant, Henderson took over as the interim head coach prior to the 2011 season following the passing of long-time friend and head coach Dan Callahan and earned the permanent head coaching position after the 2011 season.
Henderson guided the program to new academic heights, with his teams setting and re-setting the program GPA record four times. His final team at SIU set a program-high 4.71 team GPA in fall 2018.
Henderson coached 36 players who were taken in the Major League Baseball draft, including 11 who were drafted during his time as head coach. Sam Coonrod, who played for Henderson from 2012-14, became the 25th SIU baseball alumnus to play in the Major Leagues. As an assistant, Henderson coached four Salukis who went on to have long MLB careers: Sean Bergman (8-year MLB career), Jason Frasor (12-year MLB career), Jerry Hairston, Jr. (16-year MLB career), and Al Levine (10-year MLB career).
Henderson's top two clubs each won 31 games. His 2012 team finished sixth in the MVC regular season race but made an upset-filled run to the MVC Tournament Championship game, where it came up just short against Creighton. In 2016, Henderson guided the nation's biggest turnaround, developing a 12-win team from 2015 into a 31-win team in 2016 that was among the MVC's top pitching squads.
In Henderson's 29 seasons coaching at SIU, Saluki players earned 48 MVC Scholar-Athlete awards, 46 All-MVC honors, 18 MVC All-Tournament honors, eight Freshmen All-American honors, five All-Region honors, 35 MVC Player of the Week awards, and eight Academic All-District honors. He coached three All-Americans: Chris Serritella was a first-team All-American in 2012; and Aaron Jones and George Vukovich were second-team All-Americans in 1997.
Henderson also served as interim head coach for the final 20 games of the 1994 season and led SIU to a 12-8 record. Henderson guided Southern to a winning record that season after the club started the year winning just 15 of its first 33 games.
He came to Southern Illinois in the fall of 1990 as an assistant coach and held the title of associate head coach from 1993-2010 under head coaches Sam Riggleman and Callahan.
Prior to joining Southern Illinois for the 1991 season, Henderson served as an assistant coach at Oral Roberts where he assembled several recruiting classes that ranked among the nation's elite by Collegiate Baseball. In 1987, he helped ORU to a 49-14 record and runner-up finish at the NCAA West I Regional.
A 1983 graduate of Missouri Southern State, Henderson played for one of the nation's top NCAA Division II programs. Following graduation, he began his coaching tenure at his alma mater before moving on to coach at Kansas State from 1984-86.
Henderson is a native of Vinita, Okla. He and his wife, Pam, reside in Carterville, Ill., and have two sons, Keegan and Connor.
Ken Henderson's Record
Year | School | Position | Overall | Conference | Postseason |
1983 | Missouri Southern State | Assistant Coach | 15-24 | District 16 Tournament | |
1984 | Kansas State | Assistant Coach | 14-24 | 4-18 (7th) | |
1985 | Kansas State | Assistant Coach | 29-33 | 8-14 (4th) | |
1986 | Kansas State | Assistant Coach | 24-34 | 5-19 (7th) | |
1987 | Oral Roberts | Assistant Coach | 48-19 | 8-0 (1st) | NCAA West I Regional |
1988 | Oral Roberts | Assistant Coach | 30-29 | -- | -- |
1989 | Oral Roberts | Assistant Coach | 36-18 | -- | -- |
1990 | N/A | N/A | |||
1991 | Southern Illinois | Assistant Coach | 27-36 | 6-18 (6th) | -- |
1992 | Southern Illinois | Assistant Coach | 19-31 | 6-13 (7th) | -- |
1993 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 22-29 | 5-15 (7th) | -- |
1994 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach* | 27-26 | 9-10 (5th) | -- |
1995 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 21-30 | 8-21 (9th) | -- |
1996 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 29-26 | 18-12 (3rd) | -- |
1997 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 23-32 | 13-15 (5th) | -- |
1998 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 19-35 | 11-21 (8th) | -- |
1999 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 25-29 | 9-22 (8th) | -- |
2000 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 26-30 | 15-17 (5th) | -- |
2001 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 19-36 | 10-21 (8th) | -- |
2002 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 32-24 | 17-15 (4th) | -- |
2003 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 30-25 | 17-13 (3rd) | -- |
2004 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 27-32 | 15-16-1 (4th) | -- |
2005 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 38-21 | 15-9 (3rd) | -- |
2006 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 33-25 | 12-12 (5th) | -- |
2007 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 34-22 | 13-11 (t-3rd) | -- |
2008 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 34-23 | 12-12 (5th) | -- |
2009 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 24-28 | 11-9 (5th) | -- |
2010 | Southern Illinois | Associate Head Coach | 28-29 | 10-10 (t-3rd) | -- |
2011 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 23-34 | 11-10 (5th) | -- |
2012 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 31-28 | 9-12 (5th) | -- |
2013 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 25-33 | 6-15 (7th) | -- |
2014 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 26-31 | 4-17 (8th) | |
2015 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 12-46 | 6-15 (8th) | -- |
2016 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 31-25-1 | 11-10 (4th) | -- |
2017 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 27-30 | 10-10 (4th) | -- |
2018 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 28-30 | 10-11 (5th) | -- |
2019 | Southern Illinois | Head Coach | 26-29 | 5-16 (8th) | -- |
OVERALL | Head Coach | 241-294-1 | 80-124 |
*Henderson served as interim head coach for the final 20 games of the 1994 season. Under Henderson, the Salukis posted an overall record of 12-8 and a conference record of 7-6.