Before this summer, the last time Glacier’s Jackson Hensley thought about taking a handoff was 2016.

“I didn’t play middle school football at all,” he said this week. “Only Little Guy.”

The Little Guy halfback didn’t come out for football his freshman year at Glacier, either, thinking basketball was where he’d specialize.

Then when he did join football his sophomore year, there was this guy Rendina taking just about every carry. “Through the last four years, there really hasn’t been a running back besides Jake,” Hensley said.

Now the senior is part of a three-pronged rushing attack that has carried Glacier (6-3) back to the AA playoffs; the Wolfpack takes on visiting Billings Senior Friday at 7 p.m., at Legends Stadium.

After two straight 100-yard games Hensley is the team’s leading rusher, with 503 yards on 79 carries. He’s combined with sophomore Kobe Dorcheus (471 yards) and junior Kash Goicoechea (226) to supply the same kind of production Rendina provided.

Example: Through nine games last season Rendina had 117 carries, 1,077 yards and 20 touchdowns. The HGD trio: 184 carries, 1,200 yards and 19 TDs.

That includes 139 yards on 10 carries last week from Hensley; the week before, in the crosstown game, he had 17 carries for 105 yards.

“I’m happy for Jackson,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said after the Flathead game. “This really is his first year of football — he’s coming off an ACL and other injuries and has never really played.”

Late Start

From Hensley’s perspective this is mostly true: He would have loved to have played more last season, when he saw a little action at free safety, and not a lot.

The injury early in his sophomore year, when he was playing at receiver, didn’t help.

“It was simple enough,” he said. “I was blocking and I planted wrong on inside technique, and it just gave away. It wasn’t like a direct hit or anything. “Then I had some issues with scar tissue, and I had to get another surgery for that.

“I came back my junior year, and probably all that time without playing did me harsh.”

But after most storms comes some blue sky. As the 2020 pandemic stretched into 2021 and the knee surgeries doubled up, Hensley found himself in the weight room more and more.

“Before my surgery I was sitting around 165 pounds,” he saide. “Now I’m 190.”

The improved strength showed on the track oval last spring: He blossomed into Glacier’s top sprinter, placing first or second in eight different 100-meter dashes.

Always on Bennett’s radar because of his athleticism, now there were numbers to go with.

“Colton Harkins has come in from Logan Healthy, and specifically Colton has been great with … kids working back from injury,” Bennet said. “Jackson bought in and worked his tail off, and by this time last year and more last summer, he’d really become one of our strongest kids, pound for pound.

“Then it was, ‘Where do we play him?’ He has such good speed and he’s big and strong.”

Big Finish

If the coaches were rolling the dice, they rolled a seven on Sept. 16, when Hensley gained 118 yards on 19 carries against two-time defending state champion MIssoula Sentinel. Still, that was then; both coach and running figured he’s improved since then.

“He’s still learning, and learning how to be patient,” Bennett said after the crosstown game. “He’s so fast, a lot of times he gets to the hole too fast. We’re telling him to be patient, let that guard hit that hole and let the scheme develop. Then accelerate.

“That’s why he had some big runs.”

Unbeaten Helena Capital held Hensley to 3.8 yards a carry, and then a sore elbow hampered him for two games. Then he hit his stride.

“Jumping into not only into running back, but the whole offense,” Hensley said. “Being down in the trenches has been a whole learning process. I’m a zero-or-100 type guy, so I need to be patient. I’ve learned the last couple weeks to be patient, before I turn the burners on.”

Bennett is extremely proud of how far he’s come, and noted that Montana Tech offered Hensley a scholarship this week.

“The player Jackson is going to be in two or three or four years is going to be incredible,” Bennett said. “Or could be.”

Hensley, with another track season ahead of him and more schools interested, is non-committal. “Time will tell,” he said.

In the meantime, the playoffs await. Three straight one-score losses — to Sentinel, unbeaten Helena Capital and Helena — aren’t forgotten by the Wolfpack; in fact they inspire.

The Western AA is 11-5 against the Eastern AA going into the playoffs dating back to the preseason, so Glacier knows it can play against all comers.

“Definitely,” Hensley said. “All three of those losses were heart-breakers. “There were things our team saw that could improve on, and pull out all three wins. We’re pretty confident going into the playoffs that we have a shot at it.”