CLINTON-Camanche senior, LJ Henderson, is one of 16 high school students competing this week in the American Family Insurance Slam Dunk 2020 fan voting competition.
That gives him the opportunity to compete in Atlanta in April, but he needs fan votes to do it.
Henderson has been showing his athletics this season with high dumps: one hand, two hands, left, right, with defense, open court, it doesn’t matter.
The offensive power was recorded and a dump against Wilton went viral on social networks, was retweeted and commented for days.
That got Henderson’s national attention, and then Slam High School got in touch, asking for a video.
That was crazy when he sent me the email, Henderson said. The coach said: check my email, the director came in and said check your email, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Henderson will be part of this week’s competition. The DreamFearless fan part includes 16 players from across the country who caught the attention of the committee.
Each player faces another in a parenthesis style, and whoever gets the most votes will go into the competition next week.
Voting begins on Tuesday and fans can vote at highschoolslam.com.There will also be a link on the Clinton Herald website and information about the event’s social networks.
The winner of the fan portion will compete on April 7 (during the University Basketball Championship Week) at CBS at the American Family Slam Dunk 2020 and the 3-point contest.
Henderson has a mark of only 6-02 but offers flying jumps and speed in his basketball game. The blows of the game, however, are new.
I would try the first year, but it wasn’t until the second or third year that I could really leave it, Henderson said. This year is the first time I really started doing it in the games and I got comfortable.