College life has been pretty good so far to local slugger Hailey Henry.
So far, it’s been: go to school, win championships, hit dingers – ya’ know, all of that fun stuff.
The Houma Christian School graduate has an absolutely dominant freshman season at Northwest Florida State, serving as a big bat on a team that went 61-4 and made it to the 2025 NJCAA Division I Softball World Series before winning it all and securing the National Championship.
Henry spoke to By-U Sports this week and said she could not have asked for more for her freshman season.
“My first season was amazing,” she said. “Coming from playing at a small high school at Houma Christian to the big college level was a big mindset change and an amazing experience. Having such amazing coaches guide you and teach you about this sport makes softball even better. Building the team from the bottom to the top was also amazing to see the growth we have had, you go into a big college and don’t really know many people so you have to gain friendships on and off the field and learn how each other play.”
The transition was reach, but boy, it sure wasn’t one that took Henry a long time to master.
She was an absolute force for NWF this season, hitting .350 with 15 home runs and 52 RBI. Just like she did at Houma Christian, Henry also had great command of the strike zone, walking 37 times compared to just 34 strikeouts.
She said that going to Northwest Florida, she knew the expectations were high and she knew that the program has one goal: to win championships.
Andy Lee runs that program and they are multi-time champions.
So going into that, she said that she knew that she had to mentally be ready to play at the highest level in order to see the field. But she also added that being surrounded by Lee, an amazing coaching staff and a roster full of hungry, team-driven players helped as well.
In addition to her work at the plate, Henry was good behind the plate, tossing out 9 of 30 potential base stealers who tried to run on her during games.
“I was alongside some of the best players who brought out the best in me,” Henry said. “So I knew we were going to succeed.”
Playing at a JUCO, Henry said she knows that her sophomore season is going to be huge for her collegiate future and she said she has high hopes to shine in 2026 and replicate what she did last year, if not even more.
Henry said that she has worked extremely hard already this offseason to work on her hitting and catching, but also on her body to get bigger, faster and stronger. She said she has also attacked the mental side of the game so that she can be able to handle mini-slumps, but also so that she can be a leader to her teammates as an upperclassman sophomore at a JUCO.
Henry said winning the National Title is something she will never forget and is something that she hopes to experience again, adding that she is grateful for her teammates and coaches for all coming together and playing their best softball at the right time to make their season-long goal a reality.
“The goals I have for my sophomore season are to win another national championship, be a leader offensively and defensively, work to always improve myself and those around me, beat our school’s home run record and really just to have fun,” she said.
Henry said she wanted to thank all of the people in the Bayou Region for reaching out after she and her team won the National Title, adding that it’s fun to be recognized by her home.