Do-it-all Shamrock
YC football star Henderson made name for self in basketball, as a PG, this winter
J.R. Henderson was so important to this year’s Yuma Catholic boys basketball team, coach Brooks Neumann simply refused to take him out of games — even when the star junior point guard got in early foul trouble.
At Lake Havasu early in the season, Neumann’s unconventional — to say the least — thinking backfired, as Henderson fouled out in the second quarter.
“Everybody’s coming up to me after the game asking if I knew J.R. had four fouls,” Neumann said. “Yeah, I knew. But I never felt comfortable having him on the bench when the game was going on. We couldn’t win, keep it close, without him.”
Henderson, the 2017-18 Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Boys Basketball Player of the Year, did it all for the Shamrocks.
Playing a position that was new to him, Henderson led the area in both points (15.5) and assists (4.7) per game, to go along with 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.
His Shamrocks (7-10 AIA), despite finishing below .500, were still the only local boys basketball team to qualify for the postseason.
A year ago, Henderson averaged 7.5 points per game as YC’s backup shooting guard. But following the graduation of starting point guard Jaylen Barnes, and the transfer of backup point guard Derrick Barnes to Cibola, Henderson took on the role of floor general this season.
He’d also previously played mostly shooting guard in travel ball, with Team Heat, for which Derrick Barnes is the point guard.
“Point guard is fun because it’s not just about scoring at that point,” Henderson said. “You get excited when your teammates score because you get the big assist. You’re up front the whole time, so you’re kind of in control of the tempo and everything.”
He called the transition “definitely a big adjustment,” but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at his numbers.
In just the Shamrocks’ third game of the year, in a highly anticipated matchup against Cibola on the second day of the Southwest Rotary Classic, Henderson put together a line to remember: 14 points, nine rebounds, 13 assists and five steals.
Oh, and the 3A Shamrocks beat the 6A Raiders — who went undefeated against all other local opponents this season — by 23 points.
“The Cibola game was really good because he was really excited to be playing a local team,” Neumann said. “He wants to show guys on local teams that he’s good enough to play at other local schools.”
That was far from Henderson’s only notable performance.
In two games against Casteel — a team that finished No. 3 in the final 3A state rankings — Henderson averaged 19 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists.
In the second of those two matchups, Neumann faced a similar dilemma to the one he faced at Lake Havasu. Henderson picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter, but Neumann again left him in. This time, he Henderson avoided a fifth foul — and the Shamrocks went on to a relatively shocking 67-66 upset victory.
He closed the season with his two biggest scoring outputs, putting up 26 points in a win over Fountain Hills that effectively clinched the Shamrocks a spot in the 3A state tournament, and then 29 in their