Leverage Football certified NFL agents, from left, Darian Yahyavi, Mark Henness and Ross Jones pose for a photo Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
Thursday, April 14, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Mark Henness hired outside help from sports-performance trainers eight years ago when one of his sons, Kieren Henness, wasn’t getting on the field as much as he had hoped in his junior football season at Coronado High.
Within six months of specialized workouts and nutritional guidance, Kieren had transformed his body and his coverage skills as a cornerback. He had already impressed his teammates and coaches but was eager to show it off competitively when the Cougars went to a national 7-on-7 tournament in Southern California to start their summer schedule.
“He lines up across from a kid that everyone knew, who had multiple Division-1 offers, and I just saw his body language—it was, ‘Man, I hope they throw this guy the ball. Let me do what I do,’” Mark Henness recalls. “That was the moment when I said, ‘I’ve got to do this for more kids, because this just changed my kid’s life.’”
Mark Henness hasn’t stopped chasing that goal ever since. It led him to become a certified agent through the NFL Players Association and to start a player agency, Leverage Football, in 2016. Henness and three fellow partners/agents with local ties—UNLV graduate Ross Jones, former Sierra Vista High/Murray State cornerback Darian Yahyavi and former Silverado High/Air Force wide receiver Spencer Armstrong—have steadily grown Leverage ever since.
Henness, Jones and Yahyavi are based in Las Vegas, while Armstrong works out of Florida.
The quartet signed their largest class yet—13 professional football hopefuls—going into this year’s NFL Draft, which takes place April 28-30 on the Las Vegas Strip. That group includes three locals: former Centennial High/Utah State receiver Savon Scarver, former Desert Pines/UNLV receiver Randal Grimes and former Palo Verde/UNR defensive end Kameron Toomer.
“Vegas is an underrepresented market as far as colleges coming to recruit here, in terms of kids getting identified,” Henness says. “There are such great athletes in all sports here, so we don’t want any of our local kids to get away. We want them all—all that have the potential to play in the NFL and are willing to make the commitment to do it.”
Henness initially sought only to get into the sports-performance business, partnering with noted local trainer Mike Waters to open a pair of state-of-the-art Phase 1 Sports gyms. Phase 1 specialized in getting draft prospects ready for the NFL combine and pro days, on which they have a chance to perform in front of teams. But Henness came away disturbed by what he witnessed with many of the players.
“I was meeting these guys transitioning from college to the NFL who couldn’t get their agents on the phone,” Henness said. “I go, ‘How can you sign a kid and go cheap on it?’ I was watching the meals some of these agents were providing, and it was a boiled chicken breast and a couple orange slices. I was like, ‘How do you get better with that?’ I knew I could do better. The way I looked at it was, I could partner with these kids.”
A chance encounter at another local gym led to Henness meeting Jones, who was also looking to break into the player-representation business after having worked as a reporter, editor and personality covering the NFL for Fox Sports. Similar to Henness, Jones had seen things he wanted to fix in the agency world from his own vantage point in media.
“I’d talk to agents, and you knew the kid [would be] an undrafted free agent, and they’d be like, ‘He’s a second-round pick,’” Jones says. “They’d sometimes lie to their clients’ faces or … give them false expectations. So, for us, it’s important to be raw, honest and transparent with our clients.”
Most mock drafts have none of the three aforementioned locals Leverage represents this year getting picked, but that can turn into an advantage for fringe prospects. It allows agents to talk with and select the best fit of the 32 NFL teams with an undrafted free-agent deal for their players.
Jones obsessively tracks the rosters and schematic tendencies of every team to make sure his players land in the right place.
A couple of Leverage’s undrafted success stories include former Faith Lutheran/Boise State guard John Molchon and one-time UNLV star linebacker Javin White. Molchon is entering his third season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won a Super Bowl in 2020, while White appeared in six games with the Las Vegas Raiders over the past two years before signing with the New York Jets late last season.
“The dream is to sit back on draft day and hear your name called,” Jones says. “Last year, we had [offensive lineman] D’Ante Smith out of East Carolina, and he was a fourth-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals and literally ended up playing in the Super Bowl. That was really special, but we’re always prepared for whatever happens.”
Another notable local Leverage client, former Desert Pines High/West Virginia linebacker Tony Fields, went in the fourth round last year to the Cleveland Browns. Fields had trained with Phase 1 and Waters dating back to his high school days, a continuity that’s not uncommon with the best local football players.
“That’s where I trained in high school and all throughout college to help me prep for the next level,” Yahyavi says. “Once I was done playing, I became a trainer and performance coach there … but I felt my time had run its course helping athletes from the physical side. I wanted to transition to something else, but I still knew my calling was helping athletes. I knew Mark was an agent and owner of the facility, so I talked to him and the whole agency idea just clicked.”
When Desert Pines recently hung Fields’ jersey in a ceremony at its gym, Yahyavi, Henness and Jones were there. They also organized a get-together with all of their players during the Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium, where Molchon showed off his Super Bowl ring to this year’s rookies.
The agents hope instilling a family-like atmosphere will help Leverage Football continue to grow, and they’re committed to doing it in Las Vegas.
“A lot of times, agents just ship a player off to Exos in San Diego [to prepare for the draft], and they live in Florida or New York City,” Jones says. “We are legitimately here with our guys the majority of the time. Some of the time we’ll have guys that want to train at House of Athlete in Florida or wherever, and we’ll cater to those requests, but I think the thing that sets us apart is day-in and day-out, we’re going to be here.”
This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
