McHenry takes over as Republic softball coach

Denny McHenry is the new head softball coach at Republic. McHenry, who served as an assistant under Lee Dishman last season, takes over after Dishman's retirement. Dishman led the Lady Tigers to the Class 5 state quarterfinals in his final year.
 
McHenry coached boys basketball at Republic in the early 2000s and spent 14 years at Logan-Rogersville coaching girls basketball and softball. He stepped away from those jobs three years ago but stayed in the game as a boys basketball assistant at Kickapoo under his son, Mitch Dishman recruited him to join the Republic softball staff last fall.
 
"After being out of it for three years, I couldn't get the coaching quite out of my system," McHenry said. "I always wanted to do it again, but I didn't want to travel very far to do it."
 
McHenry said he didn't know Dishman was planning to retire when he took the assistant job and didn't seriously consider the head coaching position until late in the season. But the fit at Republic was natural from the start.
 
"Some of the families that have girls playing were players for me whenever I was coaching basketball here a few years back," McHenry said. "It just felt really comfortable."
 
Eight seniors graduated from last year's quarterfinal team, but McHenry isn't worried. Five or six returners played significant time, and he said he's confident in the pitching and catching.
 
"I think they're gonna work really, really hard. I think they enjoy what they do," he said. "I think that's really the key to it."