Joy is back for Henry

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. - When it was time for Joy Henry to pick a high school, all the top female track & field stars were going to AP Randolph in the Bronx or Brooklyn’s Boys & Girls. With an eye towards academics, she chose Cardozo instead.
Little did the St. Albans native know what was in store. Half a decade later, the Oakland Gardens school boasts one of the best programs in the city. This season they won the PSAL indoor championships, and in senior-to-be middle sprinter Dalilah Muhammad and UCLA-bound hurdler Lindsay Rowe, featured two of the best athletes in the country.
It all started with Henry, the talented middle sprinter. She convinced fellow members of her elite track club, the New York Novas, to join her, including Muhammad, Gatorade’s New York Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year and national champion and state record-holder (57.09) in the 400-meter hurdles, and drew in Rowe, the State Federation 100-meter hurdles champion and PSAL100-meter hurdles record holder.
“It’s great to be somebody that sets the mode and kicks in the door,” she said. “I put the mark down for others to accomplish something.”
Henry was part of two Cardozo 4×400-meter relay teams to win gold at the Millrose Games, she went to numerous state and national competitions, and was always a winning fixture in the borough and city championships.
Since leaving Cardozo, though, life has not been nearly as grand. Henry struggled as a freshman at Eastern Kentucky - on the track and off it.
“I wasn’t having fun; it was just business,” she said. “I was just out there thinking about times, not thinking about executing my races and having fun.
“Not only was the track not for me, but the atmosphere wasn’t right,” Henry went on. “I was lonely. The toughest part was being a big city girl in a small southern world. You have to ask everybody for a ride down there. There is no transportation whatsoever.”
This summer was all about regaining her swagger. She returned to her summer coach, Christopher Malcolm of the New Horizon Track Club. “We could see it the first day at practice,” Malcolm said. “She wasn’t the same person. Her confidence level was very low.”
Slowly, they built it back up. Henry has done well in the 400-meter dash, her calling-card event. At Eastern Kentucky, she had trouble breaking 59 seconds, but after a few months at home, that is a thing of the past.
She recently won the gold medal in the Empire State Games, dusting the competition in the 400-meter final with a time of 57.27 seconds, and earning another gold in the 4×400 relay and silver in the 4×100 relay.
“I’m glad I could win because it put me back into a positive state,” she said. “When I was back in Kentucky, I was having a lot of doubts, ups and downs, that I couldn’t become what I was before. This means a lot to me.”
Malcolm said, “As the season progressed, we started seeing the old Joy come back.”
Henry will be running somewhere this fall, just not for Eastern Kentucky. She is looking at two Division I schools, one of a prominent nature, another an up-and-comer, much like Cardozo five years ago. She would not reveal the colleges, out of fear it would jinx her future plans. More importantly, Henry is back to running free and easy, enjoying each meet.
“I’m having fun,” she said.