When you’re a hungry high school sophomore short on change, you count on friends to help you out.

Cheri Craddock had no idea how much she helped Tyriena Henley-Henderson when they went out for a doughnut and she told her best friend, “If I buy it, you have to come out for track.”

A basketball player since age 6, Henley-Henderson said she didn’t see the point of running, but she kept her word, went out for the track team at James Logan High in Union City and quickly realized track and field was much more than she had imagined.

Over the next two years, with the help of James Logan coach Lee Webb, whom she calls “the greatest coach ever,” Henley-Henderson developed into a top sprinter and long-jumper, and was all set to go to San Diego State on a partial scholarship in the fall of 2002.

According to Henley-Henderson, that deal fell through when the school informed her that she was ineligible just two weeks before school began.

So it was back home to Oakland, where Henley-Henderson had to work for a semester before attending Sacramento City College.

Finally in the spring of 2003, Henley-Henderson — who is the niece of baseball great Ricky Henderson — found Sacramento State.

After a year off from training, she was unsure she would even try out for the track team.

“I was kind of nervous,” she said. “I was kind of afraid of the competition and didn’t want to do it.”

Henley-Henderson said Angela Mercado, a junior at the time, was able to push her enough to convince her to run for the Hornets.

A new face on a team that had high expectations, Henley-Henderson said it was a difficult transition.

“As a walk on, you seem like the outsider, and that was kind of stressful, trying to prove yourself and show what you have,” Henley-Henderson said. “(Without a scholarship) I would have to do what I needed to do at practice and then leave early to go to work.”

Despite working four days a week between Foot Action and The Elephant Bar, she kept competing hard, hoping, she said, to prove she was as good as the top recruits at Sac State.

Coach Kathleen Raske took notice of Henley-Henderson’s results and decided that she was.

She awarded Henley-Henderson a scholarship for the 2005 season.

“She had an immediate impact and earned her scholarship,” Raske said. “Now she’s a major leader on our team and performs really well when it counts.”

With the financial stress lifted from her shoulders, Henley-Henderson said she is able to devote more time to her training and schoolwork.

In the Hornets’ outdoor season-opener, Henley-Henderson showed her training paid off, as she won the 400 meters in 57.09 seconds and finished second in the long jump. She was also a part of the dominating 4×400 relay team, which finished 7.27 seconds in front of the rest of the field.

Henley-Henderson said she wants to help the Hornets compete for a title, and she also hopes to be the Big Sky Champion in the 400-meters.

“I think I’m in reach of it and I really want to bring home that title,” she said.

The only woman in a family of four, Henley-Henderson said she hopes to stay involved in athletics after her time at Sac State.

A kinesiology major, she said she hopes to go into a career in physical therapy.

“I think she’ll be able to do anything,” Raske said. “She has such good character, great maturity and great time management.”

According to Henley-Henderson, there’s no secret to her success.

“I try to find joy in knowing that nobody is working as hard as I’m working right now,” she said. “I just try to put my all into everything.”

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Sergio Abeijon can be reached at [email protected]