Maurice Henriques caught in a pensive moment at last year's Boulder County Championships. Contributed photo.
You went to high school in Houston but came to Boulder to play college football. What was it that made you decide on CU?
Well, that decision was completely made by my mother. She wanted to me to play for Coach McCartney because he was a man of God and she wanted me to be around a coach that cared about me as person. It turns out mom always knows best.
Tell us a little something about your high school accomplishments--for both track and football.
Please remember this is Texas track... As a freshman I ran 10.5 (100) and 48.6 (400) and our 4x100 team ran a time of 41.8. I finished seventh in our regional meet in the open 400 and our relay team was last. I wanted to run track in college too, but that came to a halt when I tore my right quad muscle in half during my sophomore year at our district meet while running the 4x100. After doctors informed me I would never sprint again, the focus became football. I lead the Houston area my junior year with 10 interceptions as a cornerback. Following my senior season I was selected to play in the Texas McDonalds high school football game in Texas Stadium. The Dallas Cowboys were my favorite team, so it was a big deal playing in their stadium. About 35 guys who played in that game went on to play in the NFL including former Denver Broncos Matt Lepsis and Dan Neil. Priest Holmes [Chiefs] and Zach Thomas [Dolphins] were two of the highest-profile players in the game.
As a former collegiate football player, it probably wouldn't be too much of a reach for you to be coaching football right now--what made you become a track coach?
Although football is where my focus was collegiately, I also loved track. I started my coaching career on the football field at Ranum High school with Tom Tesone in 1998. I left in 1999 and went to Denver North to be the defensive coordinator for Mike Marquez.
That spring I decided to coach track at North with Mark Mounsey. I did not know at the time that I would be coaching with my future wife. Those long track meets that spring paid off. Even though my wife Christina was at CU during the same time as me, and she was on the track team, our paths never crossed. In 2002 I left to join the football staff at Fairview to coach [football] with Tom McCartney, mainly so I could be closer to my job--I work in Boulder as a juvenile probation officer. In 2003 I became the head track and field coach for the girls program at Fairview, and in 2004 I took over both programs until leaving in 2007.
With work and family it became clear I needed to prioritize which sport to devote my time to. I was drawn to track because I felt that some of the best mentors in my life were my high school track coach and my club coach. In particular my club coach Gary Derks, who I met after my seventh grade year. He would drive an hour each way to pick me up for practice multiple times a week during the summer because my mother was working long hours.
I lost my father and sister when I was nine so I did not have a father in the home. My coaches served as my father figures when I was growing up. I knew that I would coach track someday to give back to kids what my coaches gave to me. I love track because you can get better every day and you can teach a lot of life lessons along the way. Sometimes in life we fail or fall off the track, but if we can finish the race or the task at hand, that’s what is important about life. Showing up every day with a great attitude and having passion and giving extreme effort in all aspects of your life. Those are the qualities that make anyone a winner in life.
What prompted you to start the Real Training club team? Where all do you draw athletes from in that program?
I started Real Training in the summer of 2007 primarily to expand my work to include all aspects of a kid’s life. Real Training stands for Responsibility, Education, Athletics, and Leadership. We currently teach leadership classes at an alternative school in Lafayette and have an indoor soccer team that plays in the Boulder Indoor soccer league. We do have a track club that includes kids from several local high schools across the metro area, but primarily from up north.
I have a hunch I may already know this, but I'm going to ask, anyway--what would you pick as the highlight of your track coaching career to date?
My answer will surprise a lot of people, but for most coaches that big moment happens early on and sets the tone for their career. In 2001, while coaching at Denver North, we only had about 20 kids total in the entire program. At the time we had regionals to qualify for state and we had a strong Montbello boys’ team standing in our way. They were the long-standing powerhouse track and field program in the Denver Prep League. They had numbers and the depth, but our ten kids dedicated kids showed up and we lost the regional meet by only one point, despite scratching in a key event and missing out on sure points. Joseph Martinez and James Speed went first and second in the 100, 200, and 400 and our relay team won the 4x400. Jamie Limon won the 800, 1600, 3200, and anchored the 4x800. We had some additional distance runners score, but you would have to ask Coach Jeff Young the names.
If you could pick any league in the state to coach in, could any of them trump the Northern Conference?
I have been fortunate, or maybe "challenged" would be the better word, by heading programs in some tough leagues. When I was at Fairview we competed in the Centennial league which consisted of Mullen, Cherry Creek, Smoky Hill, Eaglecrest, Boulder, Overland, and Grandview. These programs were headed by coaches like John Hancock, Tom Southall, Carl Worthington, Mark Cooper, and Greg Weich who was the distance coach at Smoky Hill at the time. That experience has made it a little easier to handle the tough competition we face in the Northern Conference with strong programs like Broomfield, Thompson Valley, Longmont, and Mountain View. Those strong league meets better prepare us for the competition we face in large meets and the state competitions.