De’Angelo’s Draft Diary (Sixth Entry): Bringing NFL teams to the beach for upgraded meals

Coastal Carolina graduate and all-time rushing leader De’Angelo Henderson of Summerville is working with sports writer Alan Blondin to provide The Sun News with a diary entry fortnightly through the NFL Draft from April 27-29. He trained for three months at the Michael Johnson Performance sports complex in McKinney, Texas, participated in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl all-star game on Jan. 21 at StubHub Center at California State University, participated in the NFL Scouting Combine from Feb. 28-March 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and has CCU’s Pro Day on March 31.

March 25 Diary Entry:

I’ve been in Conway on the weekdays and I go back home on weekends for catch-up time with the family. It’s good to see my teammates’ faces because I’m used to seeing them and I definitely miss them, but they’ve got a million and one questions about this entire process, which I kind of figured. I really don’t mind sharing my experience because if I can do anything to get them prepared for this, I will, especially the seniors this year. They’re just excited and enjoying the moment. It’s good to have a support group, people rooting you on, cheering you on, praying for you and hoping the best for you. It makes you feel good and makes you want to work that little bit harder. They’ve been real supportive. Same with the coaches. It’s a blessing to have all those people in my corner.

It has been different from Texas. When I was in Texas I would either be in my room resting or hanging out with some of the guys, when I wasn’t in my room I was at the facility working out. Now that I’m back I have a lot more free time. I’m working out two or three days, and after working out I’ve got the whole day for myself. I’ll get up with Alex Ross and we’ll throw and try to stay loose. Alex signed a deal with the British Columbia Lions in Canada and is here working out also. I’m pretty sure he’s going to throw to us at Pro Day.

I had dinner with the Bears on Tuesday night at New York Prime and had a workout with the Cardinals on Wednesday morning. We were at New York Prime for a couple hours. They wanted to get to know me and talk a little football. The coach who came was a frat brother so we got to talk about the fraternity a little bit and a lot of football. That was pretty nice. I’ve upgraded the meals from college. When you don’t have to pay for it, it’s a whole different story.

Cardinals running backs coach Freddie Kitchens came Wednesday morning and we had about two hours on the field and in the classroom just talking football. It was pretty good. We went through a few running backs drills with footwork, explosion, stuff like that. We ran some running back routes and they worked me out in the slot a little bit to see if I could run some routes out there and catch the ball. He said he was pretty impressed and I run routes better than most running backs. Alex threw for me when I had my workout with the Cardinals. We needed a quarterback because I had to run some routes. We still have our chemistry. It’s like he never left.

Those are the only two teams that have come so far. Others are calling and talking with my agent to set up dates and times, if and when they’re going to come do a private workout with me or fly me up for a visit. A couple teams said they saw everything they needed to see from me at the combine and they were really impressed.

I called my trainer, Drew Little at Michael Johnson Performance, a couple weeks ago and told him I needed him to shoot me a workout at least until Pro Day. They’re always on their Ps and Qs with everything. They did a real good job with the workout they sent me. It’s modified specifically for me. I’ll probably follow it past Pro Day just to stay in shape until draft time. I feel I’m still in good shape. I could go bang out 20 reps on bench if I need to. I’m working out two days a week, the third day is an option. So if I don’t work out that third day I’ll go on the field and do some drills. I have to do my shuttles at Pro Day so I’m working on that stuff on my third day with the option of working out, trying to make sure my timing is still good.

I’m excited to run my shuttles and do my stuff, but I’m more so excited to see what everybody else at Coastal is going to do because I know they’re going to perform so well. They’ve been training hard back at school. Our strength and conditioning coach at Coastal, coach Tony Decker, he has set times for the guys training for Pro Day to come in. I know they’re going to shine and I’m excited to see their results, see the smiles on their faces to get everything done with and put everything out there on the table that they’ve been working for. I can’t wait for them to get their names out to the scouts that are coming. It would be great if I could help get some exposure to the other guys. I really want everybody to get a fair opportunity. I know we’re a small school so I know a lot of scouts overlook us sometime, but if they come see these guys perform, see how well they can move and how good they look, the sky is the limit for those guys if they get that opportunity. I feel my duty is to continue to inspire all of them.

This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "De’Angelo’s Draft Diary (Sixth Entry): Bringing NFL teams to the beach for upgraded meals."