"It brings tears to my eyes, I'll tell you," said Henderson, a 2019 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who established North America's oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program in 1978. "It's amazing to see what he's come through to be where he is. It shows that no matter where you come from, it's what you can arise to."
Abercrombie longed to follow Henderson, a mentor and father figure into the coaching ranks and someday work for an NHL team.
He and Nathaniel Brooks were the subjects of "NHL Bound," a four-part, NHL-produced docuseries that chronicled the two Black coaches as they participated in the Arizona Coyotes' first coaching internship program in September 2021.
Arizona hired Brooks, a former Ryerson University assistant men's hockey coach, as skills development coach in July 2022.
The Maple Leafs hired Abercrombie in September from Stevenson University, an NCAA Division III school near Baltimore where he was an assistant coach from 2019-22.
He was also a coach and director of player achievement for the Washington Little Caps, coach of Georgetown Preparatory School, an instructor at retired NHL forward Graeme Townshend's in Maine and a personal skills coach.
