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Head coach James Henry is in his 27th season at the helm of the Michigan women's track and field program. Henry's teams have garnered 113 NCAA All-America honors and 182 All-Big Ten honors, taking 124 Big Ten titles, eight individual national championships and three national championship relay titles. In the classroom, Henry's athletes have earned 297 Academic All-Big Ten honors, nine Big Ten Medals of Honor (awarded for the highest demonstration of scholarship and athletic ability), three NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships and eight CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
2009 was perhaps Henry's best year at Michigan, as he led the Wolverines to an 11th place showing at the NCAA Indoor Championships and a seventh-place finish at the Outdoor Championships. Tiffany Ofili capped her career with five national titles, winning the 60-meter hurdles (indoor) for the second consecutive season while winning the 100-meter hurdles (outdoor) for the third year in a row. Geena Gall, a 10-time All-American, won her second consecutive national title in the 800-meter run (outdoor) as both seniors capped their career in grand fashion.
The 2009 senior class left its mark on Michigan women's track and field, winning seven national championships with 23 All-America citations. The group accounted for 14 Big Ten championships earning Athlete of the Year or Championships six times. In addition to the class's athletic achievements, the group was recognized as Academic All-Big Ten 32 times.
In 2008, Henry guided the Wolverines to a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships and a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Maize and Blue earned three national championships as Ofili took the 60-meter hurdles (indoor) and 100-meter hurdles (outdoor) crowns while Gall earned top honors in the outdoor 800-meter run. Under Henry's guidance, U-M also earned eight Big Ten titles in 2008.
Following the completion of the 2008 collegiate season, 12 current or former Wolverines competed in their respective nation's Olympic trials. Nicole Forrester (1996-99) and Anna Willard (2007) went onto compete in the 2008 Beijing Games.
Henry began his coaching career in 1981 as an assistant with the Michigan men's and women's track and field teams, working with U-M's first women's track coach, Red Simmons and then Francie Kraker Goodridge, who assumed the helm in 1982.Henry has been a part of every Michigan team that has won a Big Ten title since the Wolverines captured their first crown in1982 - an indoor championship. In 1985, legendary U-M Athletic Director Donald Canham hired Henry as the third head coach in the history of the program. Henry took Michigan to seven top-30 finishes at the NCAA Championships in his first five years at the helm, adding 10 All-America honors to the resumes of his student-athletes in the process.
The seed for Michigan's success in women's track and field was planted when Henry added Mike McGuire and Arnett Chisholm to his coaching staff in 1990. McGuire, who competed in cross country for the Wolverines, returned to Ann Arbor after two seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Kansas, while Chisholm moved to the women's side after working as a volunteer assistant with the Michigan men's track and field program.
Henry's moves began to pay dividends in 1994 with the program's first Big Ten outdoor title, touching off a string of success that included the program's first triple crown in 1994, another triple crown in 1998 and the program's best finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships (fifth). Henry's 1998 Wolverine team captured both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten crowns as well, while also producing Michigan's first individual NCAA champion (Katie McGregor in the 3000-meter run indoor) and its second national champion distance medley relay team.
In 2002, Henry's squad swept the indoor and outdoor championship for the third time during his tenure, earning him coach of the year honors. Henry guided the 2003 Wolverines to the third and fourth consecutive Big Ten team titles, as the Maize and Blue captured both the indoor and outdoor league crowns for the second straight year. He earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors for the second straight year.
In 2004, Henry guided U-M to its third straight Big Ten outdoor championship, the fourth in seven years (1998, 2002, 2003),earning coach of the year honors along the way, while the Wolverines secured a second place finish in the Big Ten indoor championship. U-M captured seven Big Ten individual crowns and one relay title en route to nine NCAA All-America honors, including three for Lindsey Gallo and two for Katie Erdman. Six U-M records were broken in 2004, including the 1,500-meter which had stood for21 years. Six U-M athletes competed in the Olympic Trials with 1996 graduate Courtney Bobcock competing for Canada at the Athens games. Off the track, Gallo was the 2004 and2005 CoSIDA Academic Women's Track & Field All-American of the Year, while Melissa Bickett earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Henry earned the 12th Big Ten Coach of the Year award of his career in 2006 and was named the USTFCCCA Indoor Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year for the second year in a row after U-M earned its 14th Big Ten title and its seventh title in the last nine chances. Henry's squad took the 2006 Big Ten indoor title - the program's eighth - while finishing second in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships as the Wolverines narrowly missed out on winning their fourth triple crown. Michigan posted its third-best finish in program history at the NCAA Indoor Championships (13th place) and the second best finish in program history the NCAA Outdoor Championships (13th place).
In 2007, Henry won the USTFCCCA Indoor Track & Field Regional Coach of the Year for the Great Lakes Region. He led the Wolverines to second place in the Big Ten Indoor Championships and the program's second-best ever finish --ninth place -- at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Henry's team tied for first place with Illinois in the 2007 Big Ten Outdoor Championships and posted a program best third place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Five U-M records were broken in 2007 -- Nicole Edwards' indoor mile (4:36.08) and Tiffany Ofili's 60-meter indoor hurdles (7.43) set new marks as did Ofili's outdoor 100-meter hurdles (12.80), Anna Willard's outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:38.08) and Erdman's 800-meter run (1:59.35). Ofili and Willard won NCAA outdoor titles in their respective events.
A 1980 Michigan graduate, Henry earned a bachelor's degree in education while lettering four years on the Wolverine track and field team (1977-80), specializing in the long jump. Henry was the first U-M athlete to long jump 25 feet and his collegiate-best jumps still stand as Michigan's fourth-best indoor and third-best outdoor performances. He won the 1980 Big Ten long jump title, and helped U-M to the 1978 indoor, 1978 outdoor and 1980 outdoor Big Ten team championships. A three-time record holder at the Central Collegiate Championships, Henry qualified four times for the NCAA National Championships.
Active in a number of Washtenaw County community organizations, Henry resides in Ann Arbor with his wife, Michelle, daughter, Kamilah, and son, James II.
