Butch Henderson took over the head coaching position when, after more than 70 years since it was disbanded due to World War II, Wayland Baptist rebooted its football program in 2012. Over the course of the last five years, Coach Henderson has molded the Pioneers into a successful, vibrant program. The team is coming off its most successful season yet with an overall record of 7-3, including 4-2 in the Central States Football League. Wayland was ranked as high as No. 22 in the NAIA last season.
 
Prior to coming to Wayland, Coach Henderson was one of the most respected high school football coaches in the Texas Panhandle with over 32 years of coaching experience. Most of those years came at Coronado High School in Lubbock, where prior to his arrival in 1988, the Mustang football team had only six winning seasons and one playoff appearance in its first 22 years of competition. In the 23 years since, the Mustangs had 11 playoff appearances and four regional/area championships. 
 
In addition, as athletic coordinator at the Coronado campus, Coach Henderson was instrumental in transforming the Mustang athletic program from having only one consistent winning team into being the strongest Class 5A program in the area that stretches from Amarillo to the north, Odessa to the west, and San Angelo to the south, according to a study by the Amarillo Globe-News in 2010.
 
Coach Henderson’s overall record as head football coach at CHS was 141-105. He won district Coach of the Year honors a combined six times at Borger High School and Coronado High, and was the South Plains/Top of Texas Coach of the Year eight times. Coach Henderson was the recipient of the Coaches Care Award presented by Gatorade in 1992. He has served on the Texas High School Coaches Board of Directors, was on the THSCA selection committee in 1990, and was the coach of the North Team for the 2008 West Texas All-Star Game.
 
A graduate of Artesia (N.M.) High School, Coach Henderson received his Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern New Mexico University and his master’s degree from West Texas A&M University. He served as the secondary coach and head track coach at Borger and in New Braunfels before taking over the helm of a struggling Borger program in 1978. The Bulldogs appeared in the playoffs in four of the final six years that Henderson served as head coach. He tallied a 59-46-1 record with the Bulldogs.
 
Coach Henderson and his wife, Karen, a speech therapist, have been married 40 years and have four children: Rex, a coach and teacher in Artesia, N.M.; Jodi, a former track and soccer star at Wayland who is teaching in Irving, Texas; Janna, a corporate fitness manager in Irving; and Rick, a ministerial student at Howard Payne University.